08-09-2018, 10:42 AM
I'm clearly not excusing any extremism, FryGuy.
You've repeatedly told me how few extremists are out there. I'm not sure why you keep reiterating that point. It strikes me as minimizing the problem and I never contended that extremists comprised a large or majority percentage of the population in the first place.
The peril of extremism lies as much or more with the impact as it does with the number, which is difficult to quantify in any case. We've all seen the damage that extremist individuals and small groups can inflict.
I do see what appears to be a growth in the number of people who subscribe to and/or support white supremacist ideology over the last couple of years, or maybe they always have and are just more open about it now because they, wrongly or rightly, believe it's acceptable under the Trump Administration.
As for Antifa....yes, it is an extremist coalition. They employ different strategies to fight against what they consider fascism, and that includes resorting to proactive violence in counter protests and positioning it as self-defense and defense of the country. I fully condemn that, even when I agree that what they're fighting against is terrible for the country and should evoke massive resistance.
You've repeatedly told me how few extremists are out there. I'm not sure why you keep reiterating that point. It strikes me as minimizing the problem and I never contended that extremists comprised a large or majority percentage of the population in the first place.
The peril of extremism lies as much or more with the impact as it does with the number, which is difficult to quantify in any case. We've all seen the damage that extremist individuals and small groups can inflict.
I do see what appears to be a growth in the number of people who subscribe to and/or support white supremacist ideology over the last couple of years, or maybe they always have and are just more open about it now because they, wrongly or rightly, believe it's acceptable under the Trump Administration.
As for Antifa....yes, it is an extremist coalition. They employ different strategies to fight against what they consider fascism, and that includes resorting to proactive violence in counter protests and positioning it as self-defense and defense of the country. I fully condemn that, even when I agree that what they're fighting against is terrible for the country and should evoke massive resistance.