Yesterday one of the editors, a twenty-something named Emmett Rensin, at the leftwing parody site, Vox.com, (motto: the smartest thinkers, the toughest questions. I swear, people, I am not making that up) went on a tirade against Donald Trump. It was no ordinary tirade. It actually encouraged people to riot.

Let’s be clear: It’s never a shame to storm the barricades set up around a fascist.

— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016

Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot. — Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016

Listen, if Trump is Hitler then you’ve got no business condemning rioters. If he isn’t, you’ve got no business pretending normal is better.

— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016

eh?? Normal ISN’T better?

But again, the point is that you cannot spend a year calling a man a unique threat to democracy then be shocked when people act that way.

— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016

It remains unclear to me what people believe the appropriate response to fascism is. Say “fascist, fascist, fascist”, people will freak.

— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016

There is a lot more in that conversation and it is interesting to watch Rensin try to walk back his tweets from flat out “go riot” to “I don’t really think Trump is a threat but all you idiots have said he is a threat and therefore you should support rioters who believe your threats.”

In the end, Ezra Klein decided that while a bridge from Gaza to the West Bank was merely an error of geography, this was a bit much… even by Vox.com standards:

Klein made the right decision. There has been entirely too much flippancy expressed about rioters. A lot of things I’ve seen by people who should be allies is actually worse than this. At least Rensin explicitly puts physical violence against people off limits

It's very simple: All violence against human lives and bodies is categorically immoral.
Property destruction is vastly more negotiable.

— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016

Too many on our side seem to be fine with people getting beaten down simply because their politics are wrong.