In which Benny Johnson takes the temperature of the crowd yesterday in Washington.

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1028816561216409605

Just a few fringy randos, all talk and no action? Eh. Even progressive sites noticed that the violence this weekend came from the left and was aimed not at white nationalists but at cops and reporters. An NBC crew in Virginia was manhandled by marchers for pointing its cameras at them, although you’d be forgiven for not knowing that given the relative scarcity of the coverage. Mob intimidation of the press is always a story but it’s not a story-story unless the ideologies of aggressor and victim flatter a particular narrative.

Same rule for lunatics shooting at a group of politicians, come to think of it.

One small thing the press could do to atone if it refuses to cover lefty violence more forthrightly is at least be a bit more circumspect about throwing around terms like “anti-hate.”

https://twitter.com/thealexvanness/status/1028743670374260737

The irony of morons hurling eggs and fireworks at the cops is that the police prevented Antifa from turning yesterday into a debacle for enemies of the alt-right. It ended up being a debacle for white nationalists due to their pitiful showing but that would have changed if black-bloc cretins had broken through the lines and pummeled them. Alt-righters would have pointed to it as smoking-gun proof, carried live on national television, that the violent left can’t be restrained through normal means. They would have paid in blood for their propaganda win but it would have been a win, unquestionably. Didn’t happen, thanks to the cops.