I think we are seeing some very effective divide and conquer tactics with the segmentation and polarization of political affiliations. We should be uniting to fight the military industrial complex and the 1%, instead we are splintering.
I was at two of the Trump rallies in Berkeley over the last few months, so I saw some of this stuff first-hand. I believe the antifa phenomenon is full of provacateurs. Their violent action not only plays into the propaganda of the right-wing, but it also unites left-wingers around a lowest common denominator issue. If anyone is benefiting most from the PR value, it's corporate democrats (who will offer a safe alternative to nazism on one hand and antifa / alt-left on the other.
Racism and white supremacy are alive and well in America, but our challenge is to love one another and continue to talk. I remember when we were writing the 2008 Declaration and there was some controversy over the language "respect for everyone, including our so called 'enemies'". Call me naive, but I believe in respect for everyone. Respect may mean many things, but it does not include dehumanizing people. I understand the anger of young people, but I saw a lot of hate and violence coming from the left.
Many of the Trump supporters I saw out their just looked like maladjusted young men, who had resentment towards the mainstream culture. Plenty of them I'm sure really believe they are just defending free speech and a sort of libertarianism. And many of them are overt or latent racists. Some of them voted for Obama. Some of them voted for Bernie.
Political correctness is a right-wing buzzword, but there's something too it. I feel it in Berkeley these days. Some people are scared to speak their mind. There is a tendency to always be proving your credentials as a leftist/radical/progressive/etc.
If we start limiting free speech, "conspiracy theories" will one of the first areas to be legislated.
A small cadre of street Nazis shouldn't not be taking attention away from truly Nazi-like policies of Jeff Sessions, Betsy DeVos, and our future Christian Fundamentalist president Mike Pence.
I would refer to the tactics mentioned in Adam Curtis' new film HYPERNORMALISATION:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation
In Russia, Vladimir Putin and his cabinet of political technologists create mass confusion. Vladislav Surkov uses ideas from art to turn Russian politics into a bewildering piece of theater. Donald Trump used the same techniques in his presidential campaign by using language from Occupy Wall Street and the extreme racist right-wing. Curtis asserts that Trump "defeated journalism" by rendering its fact-checking abilities irrelevant.