When political groups such as Antifa arrange counter-rallies to happen at the same time and in the same place as a rally arranged by a right-wing group, e.g. Unite The Right’s recent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this is a clear sign that they aren’t in the least bit interested in peaceful protesting or progress.

If they were, then they would arrange a counter rally for another time and place. Groups like Antifa are gangs of people intent on acting violently who merely pose as people interested in peaceful progress.

What Antifa left-wingers and alt-right activists who hit the streets want is nothing more than a fight in front of the media. But they want to goad the ‘enemy’ into throwing the first punch or throwing the first bottle, so they can then claim to be and continue to delude themselves that they are the good guys; the only ones with the right answers to making the world a better place.

In the Charlottesville incident, Antifa got a better result than they could have expected when a man drove his car into counter-protesters, killing one of them. Thanks to that man, Antifa came out looking like the good guys.

But there are no good guys in these situations, regardless of who threw the first punch or who injured the most people. Left-wing social justice warriors and alt-right cultural justice warriors, who turn up to each other’s rallies, just want to bloody noses and smash stuff and satisfy their violent impulses. Those among the two groups who are too timid to take to the streets spend their time online encouraging the ones who are.

In this regard, leftists and alt-right supporters are as bad as each other. This is because the people attracted to the extreme ends of today’s political spectrum tend to be highly motivated, but severely lacking in critical thinking skills. They seem to be the sort of people who are desperate to think well of themselves, and who believe the only way society can progress is if everyone agrees with each other.

The media and most of the public tend to identify left-wing groups like Antifa as the good guys – or at least the guys who aren’t a threat to peaceful society. But this is mistaken.

Members/supporters of left-wing anti-fascist groups use irrational arguments to justify their violence. They argue that it is morally justifiable to assault people who identify as Nazis or white supremacists – and they act upon this conviction. Whilst at the same time labelling anyone who disagrees with any of their conclusions as Nazis.

Thus implicitly justifying using violence, should they choose to, against anyone who disagrees with them. The very people who claim to hate fascism are acting like fascist dictators themselves. Whether they do so knowingly or not doesn’t make them any less dangerous.

One cannot justify assaulting a person who merely identifies as a Nazi for the same reason one couldn’t justify assaulting someone who says he is a rapist, but who has never committed an act of rape. Implicitly or explicitly condoning violence done by others is not an equivalent action to committing violence. The former is a speech act which cannot possibly harm anyone else’s person. The latter is a physical act which does.

This is not complicated reasoning, it doesn’t require great intelligence. It’s very unlikely that all Antifa activists are mentally retarded, and so one can only conclude that they are choosing to deny reason. When someone effectively declares that they don’t give a shit about reason and truth, then they are a danger to everyone around them.

Usually, people have the problem of not being able to see the forest for the trees. But in the case of Antifa activists and supporters, the problem is the other way around. All they see is a forest of Nazis. They don’t see or refuse to see the individuals merely labelling themselves as Nazis or Nazis sympathisers.

The Antifa rejection of reason poses just as big a threat to peaceful society as the alt-right movement – perhaps more so. As we’ve seen, Antifa supporters refuse to tolerate alt-right marches. They will physically stand in the way of alt-right supporters and scream in their faces. And that invariably sparks violence. Stuff gets smashed up. People get hurt. The public gets scared and starts to think maybe it is a good idea to restrict free speech and to have armoured cars patrolling the streets. No good ever comes from it.

We cannot have a free society and all the wonderful material and intellectual benefits which come with freedom without tolerating expressions of, however vociferous, political ideologies we find despicable. If we refuse to tolerate non-violent expressions of views we strongly disagree with, then we will eventually destroy free society altogether.

Our attempts to take away the freedoms of people we disagree with and to silence them will result in all of us losing our freedoms and our voices at the hands of the state.