‘I was wrong’: U-Va. newspaper editor says he was ‘naive’ about alt-right

By Samantha Schmidt August 16 at 5:10 AM

Weeks before violent protests in Charlottesville turned to tragedy, Brendan Novak wrote a column in the University of Virginia student newspaper arguing that the city “should let the alt-right rally occur.” ... In the column, Novak, an opinion editor at the Cavalier Daily, defended the constitutional rights of the white supremacist groups to assemble and express their views. He wrote that the city — and Black Lives Matter — should allow the “alt-right” to protest openly, and “watch as the rotting ideological foundation collapses under its own weight.”

After all, he thought, how could a “universally loathed” group with “downright repulsive views” thrive in the face of an inclusive and tolerant society?

But then, on Friday night, Novak, an incoming sophomore at U-Va., watched from his family’s home in Arlington videos of white nationalists marching through his campus with flaming torches, shouting racist taunts. ... He realized in that moment that Saturday morning’s rally was “a disaster waiting to happen.” He stayed up late into the night, coming to terms with the scale — and severity — of the event, which would conclude with three people dead by the end of the weekend, a woman struck by a car that plowed through a crowd and two state police officers who died in a helicopter crash.

“It was naive of me to not take their threats seriously,” Novak told The Post. “You could see it coming … it wasn’t hard to predict.” ... On Monday, Novak decided to write a second column — reversing his opinion.
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Samantha Schmidt is a reporter for The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She previously worked as a reporting fellow for the New York Times. Follow @schmidtsam7