Fox and Barton are a pair of clowns. The fact that they have a platform on social media is because they are reflecting back (not very well or clearly from what I have seen) a set of existing ideas not because they are creating them.
The conditions that provide the oxygen for those ideas - a political vacuum and lack of representation, deteriorating living standards, concerns about immigration, the collapse of social solidarity, a crisis of masculinity etc – have not emerged overnight and are very complex to resolve. The far right and the political reproduction of some of their ideas by the populist right provide an easy, but ultimately hollow, solution.
For those seeking to engage and to build a better set of ideas and politics, who see the need to intervene meaningfully and credibly in the communities where these ideas are taking root and who want our side and not their side to fill the political vacuum the task is to provide ideas and answers to those conditions. There are no short cuts or easy solutions. Social media bans (which won't happen), calling on the state to hand out stiffer jail terms, demonisation etc isn't going to cut it.
I agree with
Pickman's model that where we are headed does require the need for thinking about effective tactics to target mobilisations like last night, but AFA was also always clear that its role was essentially defensive, and to create time and space for an alternative set of pro working class politics to fill the vacuum. That was the task then and it remains the task now....