It's not a far-fetched slippery slope, though. Eg examine how the "put a check on the police" originally had momentum (even the likes of right or far rifht fox news were behind it at first), and how it lost all ability to be implemented when it got (foolishly) presented in absolute or near absolute tautology with more general and lingering issues of racism.
Of course when it got presented as tied to antifa as well... you could tell how things would go.
A large part of society is (for better or worse) not accepting of either extreme. And while far-right extreme typically is more violent and dangerous, it won't matter when the reason of non-acceptance is not degree of violence, but existence of violence.
It's absolutely far-fetched, what he's saying, because the entire context is fundamentally different in ways I can't even describe. This isn't the 30s. We're not inbetween two World Wars. We have the Internet. The far and alt-right crowds are massively active online (and on the streets). There are so many factors to consider that going "but what happened last time" is such a shallow, reductive attempt at a gotcha that
that's probably what is more galling (rather than the rather boring moving of the goalposts, which I'm used to these days).
Violence
exists. It is a privilege (yes, that dreaded word) to not have to deal with it. For example, I don't have to. I don't have to deal with the threat of it. I
have done. Not life-and-death, of course, but in the past I've lived with the active fear of it, and without much option in terms of protecting myself. But it is a mark of privilege that I do not have to anymore (differences in where I live, and so on - completely ignoring my own personal growth. I cannot fight a
gang, regardless of how old or strong I am).
A lot of the people here debate from the perspective that such violence doesn't exist, or is exaggerated, or the like. This is flawed. You are not putting yourself in the shoes of the people who are targeted by these extremists. You
should, if we want to discuss possible futures. Because another one is "people continue to get beaten to death in a first-world developed country by fascist militia while everybody pontificates online if it's okay to punch the fascist militia back". And yes, various groups
definitely count as militia. Nevermind the ongoing links between these groups and US (other other countries') police forces, which is a
structural problem. It's very neat and tidy to claim violence doesn't help. And it doesn't necessarily. But that doesn't mean it doesn't
ever, and you cannot be the person who decides when it is or isn't. You're too far removed from it. Zard is. Even I am, outside of the people I know and the areas I know they live in.