Agreed that this commentary (which I haven’t heard, but the sentiment is more common) is entirely useless. But there is a real fear that the big burly dudes doing the most radical thing are feds (burning a flag isn’t radical, but is more radical than chanting or marching). It’s good to discuss this in a way much more understandable and useful though. I doubt Hasan (idk about the other person) means that leftists shouldn’t burn a flag at a protest, but that you should be weary if someone else does who shows other signs of being a fed.

Now I think this is wrong, too, but not simply because we don’t know if the person is a fed or not (and I doubt this one was tbh, but that’s irrelevant). I think that, regardless of the identity of the person, a movement should do the actions set out to do and allow those to be done by whoever is around. If a fed burns a flag, let it incite others to do it too, it’s fine and good. If the major or says that flag burning is undesired, I find it weak, but it totally changes that. If a fed starts beating up passersby who have no relation to the protest, they should be stopped and called out. This is an argument of discipline instead of intent