I check here multiple times a day and didn't know it was happening until the day it happened, but I've heard that there was at some point a single short sticky about it (I never saw it).

This event was clearly far different from all events that have been heavily encouraged by T_D. None of the big names went as far as I know. Gavin said he decided the proud boys would not go because it seemed like it was being organized as more of a white supremacist thing. Really just the name itself "unite the right" doesn't sound like something most people here would support. MAGA is about uniting everyone together under the same general common sense ideas even if we don't all agree on every detail, tons of people here don't even consider themselves "right"/"conservative"/"republican"/whatever.

I think free speech needs to apply to everyone, even people who hold opinions I hate, so on one hand I'm glad that many here feel the need to defend them. However, I think there's a big difference between standing for free speech and actually engaging in violence to defend extremists (on either side). It's a blurry line of course, if you know you are going to be attacked it makes sense to bring tools to defend yourself, but at some point both sides are showing up to fight.

The fact is if we show up and fight it will hurt our cause, fighting back is what they want. The last thing the people funding this division and violence want is for everyone to take the stance Trump took today, because it makes them look bad. They want us to fight back. They want us to go down to their level so they can slander us in the media and so that we alienate the voting base that helped get Trump into office.