A quick metaphor about antifa and the far right.

I've made the point a few times but it seems hard for both the mainstream right and left to denounce the more radical elements of their side of the political spectrum. I've tried to explain this in the past but I just thought of a metaphor for it based on the Syria conflict.

Let's say you are a Christian in Syria and ISIS is attacking your city. The Syrian government doesn't have troops to spare but they do send a bunch of guys from Hezbollah. Now Hezbollah is not explicitly against Christianity and probably won't murder you if they take over. But they will probably attack your Sunni Muslim friends and there is a chance they will decide that Christians don't deserve to live after all.

Still, the choice is obvious, ISIS will either kill you dead, force you to convert, or, at best, force you into slavery. Hezbollah may be a horrible terrorist group but they are fighting people that think you are a monster and deserve to die.

The situation is similar in America today, at least in term of perception. The actual threat isn't anywhere near as bad as being a Christian in Syria, but I think the fears of the far right and far left are essentially the same.

For those of us on the right, seeing Antifa attack peaceful protesters and seeing Black Lives Matter burn down entire cities scares the hell out of us. When a group of far right assholes throws down with these people it's hard not to root for them, even if their beliefs are repugnant to us. We have a great fear of far left political systems and we have a long tradition of fearing communism/anarchism and want to avoid having them win at almost any cost.

For those of us on the left, seeing a bunch of KKK/Neo Nazi/White Supremacists get into fights and run someone down with a car is horrifying. When Antifa punches Richard Spencer in the face, it's hard to condemn them, even if we realize that if Antifa were to take over it would be bad for everyone. We still have a great fear of Fascism and racism and do not want these people to take over.

The problem is that by not condemning people on your side that are using violence you are just confirming the other sides worst fears. People on the right think that the left is already full of communists and anarchists. People on the left think that the right is full of Nazis. I think both sides have a few bad actors but the fact of the matter is that both Antifa and the far right are small unlikable groups and that the threat from both is greatly exaggerated by the media.