Post Charlottesville All Right-Wing Rallies Are Declared Racist
Following last weekend’s Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that was organised and attended by a number of alt-right and white nationalist groups, there has been an attempt by the mainstream media and establishment politicians to ask for a crackdown on a wider variety of right-wing movements.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t identify as alt-right or white nationalist, if your ideology and views are deemed too radical you will be labelled a racist and a bigot. This is what the organisers of a free speech rally in Boston, Massachusetts found this weekend.
The rally was organised by the Boston Free Speech Coalition who invited “libertarians, conservatives, traditionalists, classical liberals, (Donald) Trump supporters or anyone else who enjoys their right to free speech”. Sounds like a perfectly respectable gathering of people defend the First Amendment of the United States.
But Post-Charlottesville a gathering of this kind is deemed to be full of neo-Nazis and white supremacists. 30,000 counter protesters showed up from a variety of left wing groups chanting “No hate no fear, Nazis are not welcome here”. Boston riot police soon disbanded the rally which the counter protestors claimed as a great victory.
We also maybe got an insight into a post-Steve Bannon White House as despite a week of condemning the alt-left in the wake of Charlottesville, President Trump bizarrely praised the counter protestors and the actions of the Boston police.
I want to applaud the many protestors in Boston who are speaking out against bigotry and hate. Our country will soon come together as one!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2017
Great job by all law enforcement officers and Boston Mayor @Marty_Walsh.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2017
It would appear that the pressure of establishment Republicans such as Mitt Romney and Karl Rove to declare anyone right of them a racist bigot appeared to get to President Trump. Let’s hope that Trump comes around like he did post the Syria strike after the backlash from his supporters.
This crackdown on the right is occurring at the same time there appears to be a political consensus about removing confederate statues from public locations around the United States. We saw the same thing happen regarding the removal of the confederate flag in the wake of Charleston church shooting in South Carolina in 2015.
Silicon Valley also conducting a purge of so called hate websites and social media accounts. You only have to look at the chilling effect YouTube demonetization has had on the capability of right wing online content to be produced as well as arbitrary social media account bans based on increasingly loose definitions of hate speech.
It is therefore vital that even if a person on the right does not agree with the alt-right and white nationalists, they defend their right to hold rallies and occupy space on the internet. If the left, media and political establishment have a victory on this front, they will crack down on any speech they decree as too radical.
An equally disturbing development has been the glorification of left wing violent street groups such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter who have been the main instigators of recent violence. The fact that the pressure has been on right wing people to condemn the alt-right and white nationalists’ groups has given these violent left-wing groups a free pass for their conduct and encouragement to continue their tactics of intimidation.
It is important to note that it only took one right wing rally to go off the rails for this crackdown on the right to commence. Most right-wing gatherings when left alone are peaceful. Meanwhile groups such as Black Lives Matter which have spent the past year burning down American cities and assassinating police offices are still viewed as noble social movements.
Right wing activists, be they conservatives, libertarians or part of the new alt-lite or anti-social justice warrior crowd should be confident in their own beliefs to not get swept up on these calls for a crackdown on the alt-right and white nationalists. The right to free speech and free assembly apply to all groups in the United States, if it starts to be denied now then other parts of the right will be next to be targeted by an empowered left.