smarmyanarchist:

respectability politics is how we get people saying the entire BLM movement is a hate movement because some of the protests became riots or because some of the protesters chanted “fuck the police”, but when it comes to Neo-Nazis, they’re happy to engage them in “polite debate” because they appear “dapper” and calm/reasonable. it’s how people genuinely believe that “antifa are as bad as fascists” because we use violence against them.

it all comes back down to this bizarre preoccupation with how nice and polite someone seems, rather than the content of their ideas and their overall goals.