Before the “Unite the Right” rally could even begin, it was clear that the cops–presumably at the behest of the leftist Charlottesville mayor and the Governor of Virginia–were not going to allow it to happen. Corralling both groups together purposefully to exacerbate the threat, the cops allowed a public safety nightmare to unfold that unjustly denied free speech rights protected under the 1st Amendment to the protesters. What escalated from there put every Charlottesville resident into serious peril, and three people ended up dead after a panicked individual ran down several leftist protesters and a police helicopter crashed.

Alt-right leaders had indicated before the rally that they thought the police were on their side, or at the very least would respect their rights. They found out the hard way this weekend that this is not the case. Removing any propaganda from the equation, the cops are the state’s enforcers. As long as the paychecks keep rolling in, they will in a general sense follow their orders. When decent individuals are in charge of the state, the cops can behave bravely like what happened in Pikeville, KY when cops kept law and order during a contentious protest earlier this year. When ANTIFA-sympathizing communists run a city, you get hellscapes like what happened in Charlottesville and Berkeley.

Many figures within the alt-right have embraced big government, and hopefully they are seeing the error of their ways right about now. Perhaps they fantasize about getting the levers of power into their hands someday, but that is a fool’s errand. The power will eventually become corrupted no matter whose hands it falls into. The only way for a sustainable free society is through the decentralization of government power, the respect of private property rights, and freedom of association. Austrian economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe has become a popular alt-right meme for his fierce anti-leftism and removal strategies, and alt-righters would be best served to fully understand his works.

In a showing that is far more revolting than it is surprising, the vast majority of conservatives and libertarians have taken the fallout from “Unite the Right” as an opportunity to virtue-signal and grovel beneath their enemies. It is impossible to tell the difference between Justin Amash or Maxine Waters today, as both are spewing the same nauseating and empty platitudes. This is what it is like across the board, as bipartisanship rears its ugly head yet again. Instead of spewing trite clichés, every conservative and libertarian should be taking a hard look in the mirror. Instead of patting themselves on the back for being ever-so-PC and anti-racist, they should be contemplating exactly why the extreme right is taking off.

Look back to recent history. The conservative right was fighting mad about Obama, the bailouts, open immigration, and other policies, but their favorite Republican politicians were going along with the status quo. The Tea Party movement and the Ron Paul revolution emerged as the antidote for this problem, but it wouldn’t last. After the tea party movement was co-opted and libertarians decided to become social justice warriors, it was the extreme right who was able to rise and fill the necessary void. With leftists openly advocating for the Orwellian nightmare, burning cities to the ground, engaging in Russian hysteria that would have made McCarthy blush, and flooding the country with third-world immigrants to destroy western civilization, there needed to be a counterbalance to this existential threat. The market demanded it, and the extreme right was there to fill it.

There are many lessons that need to be learned from this weekend’s catastrophe. Alt-righters need to understand that real life isn’t like 4chan. While it is no excuse for their rights being violated, organizers certainly batted a vicious hornet’s nest with their display this weekend. Perhaps dialing it back a bit, and doing more to make sure that literal Nazis and KKK members aren’t put center stage moving forward would be a wise path to take. To regular old conservatives and libertarians, you must realize that cucking yourselves in the face of adversity is only going to empower the extreme right. People are rightfully pissed, and that will only be worsening as time passes. If you don’t have the balls to lead, the enraged masses will find leaders with those balls. If you do not have what it takes to fill the leadership void, it will be you who is replaced–with the people who actually have the courage to stand and fight under extreme duress.