I was there, so let me give you a sense of what it was like. And at the same time I can set Dave Pell straight about what it all meant, because it was pretty damned ugly.
I went there on a “fact-finding mission” of sorts. Since one side claimed to be a “Free Speech Rally” and the other side claimed the former were “Nazis”, I figured I’d just go and see for myself, talk to people from both sides, etc.
[If you doubt my neutrality, let me state my biases: I have very little sympathy for SJW or Antifa types, but after seeing what happened at Charlottesville I was willing to at least consider the possibility that the “Free Speech Rally” was merely a cover for hate groups.]
Well! I barely got a chance to talk to the rally-goers, as the counter-protesters had forced the police to maintain a gigantic separation between the two sides (and as a student at a nearby university, I did not want to risk being photographed going to the other side — everyone here is totally convinced they were Nazis, despite the fact that I haven’t seen a single thing suggesting this). As soon as I got to the Commons, at about 10:30 am, I saw Antifa troupes marching around (masks, black clothing, anarchist or communist symbols e.g. red bandanas around their necks, etc.); I never saw any Nazism or any hint of such.
Talking to the protesters revealed that things were even worse than I’d suspected. My opening question was to ask why they thought the people inside were Nazis, and I never once got a reasonable answer. Instead, the answers ranged from useless (“because they’re Nazis, okay?”) to totally hostile (“sounds like you’re a Nazi too!”) — and I was threatened with violence more than once.
Even the more “reasonable” protestors that I talked to — a distinct minority — reacted with hostility when I criticized the extremely heavy Antifa presence.
[One person said something along the lines of “what you’re doing is fence-walking, which means you’re on their side”, which (a) is a totally broken metaphor, and (b) as a friend pointed out, is basically George W. Bush’s logic for the War on Terror.]
Things I heard the protestors scream: “We’ll shoot you motherfuckers first!”; “Nazis shut up!” (and they claim they’re not anti-speech?); “Get the fuck out of Boston, there’s no place for you here!” (to a rally-goer with an Israeli flag, what a Nazi that guy must be /s)
Things I saw: Antifa marching with Communist insignias (much better than Nazis, right? /s); an Antifa member grabbing a rally-goer’s flag and dragging her along the ground; Antifa mobbing a rally-goer and screaming threats at him (very specific threats, including doxxing).
In short, the counter-protest was the opposite of “anti-hate”: it was an orgiastic display of hate — blind and seething. Even the ‘moderates’ disgusted me with their nonchalant attitude towards the violence and ugliness in their midst. If this is the side of “tolerance” and “love” in the USA, we are in a sorry state indeed!
