Hi Nicole, sorry about the delay getting a response out! I’m not an American, I’m a Brit — so my knowledge of the Antifa movement is limited by what little I’ve read. My article doesn’t really distinguish between right and left, because such a distinction is pointless — instead it focusses on the psychology of the individuals involved. To be wholly right, or wholly left, is to miss the nuances of the opposition argument. The world is complicated and those who ascribe to an ideology usually miss this and reside in an echo chamber.

There’s a quote by Jon Ronson that I can’t remember, but basically boils down to ‘You are either into humans or you are into ideas’ and you can’t be both. Both the right and left attempt through demagoguery to simplify the world down into ideas. Right vs Left. Good vs Evil. Men vs Women. Old vs Young. All human beings are complicated. We should be searching for common ground and trying to understand each other’s world view — that is the basis of consensus.

If members of Antifa don’t question the core values of Antifa and they don’t question the validity of the received wisdom of the group, they will invariably fall into the trap my article outlines. Free thinking is generally only encouraged in the centre ground, where the world is less reactionary and it’s possible to disagree without recourse to ad hominem attacks.