Leftist protests have been judged in this manner for a century. I see zero evidence that saying "oh, well, it was just a couple of nazi flags" will cause people to ignore anarchists who show up at leftist marches and burn cars.

Doesn't the argument go "more speech, not less"? I'm really not troubled by the idea that different groups in society contest the meaning of collective action. 2020's George Floyd protests were widely decried in some circles, praised in others, praised with an asterisk in others still, and that's basically part of how society engages in collective meaning-making, so what's the problem?

My guess is that the end consensus on this protest will be more or less exactly what it appears to be: a bunch of hayseed idiots, many of whom have fringe (even if not racist) views, briefly annoyed the fuck out of regular Bytowners in a quixotic and futile effort to achieve a set of unclear but mostly odious goals; a handful of them will end up choking to death in a hospital 6 weeks from now; and Canada isn't going to drop a widely supported rule that also makes no sense to drop (because the U.S. hasn't dropped their side, so unilateral changes won't actually benefit anyone).

Progressives have staged false flag campaigns concerning racism before, as recently as November. Democratic political operatives dressed up as Charlottesville tiki torch racists and then used connections to try to pin it on the opposition, until they were caught. [1]

[1] https://theintercept.com/2021/11/03/lincoln-project-charlott...