Media manipulation of our perceptions is pretty standard today.  We are told whom to like, whom to hate, what causes are right and just, and what positions on the issues are considered "correct" – politically or otherwise.

Indeed, the message is, if you want to be cool and hip, you must think a certain way or be cast into the outer darkness.

So it shouldn't surprise us that the demonstrations in Washington over the weekend were universally praised in the media as "peaceful" – despite violence perpetrated by "anti-fascist" demonstrators.

The Fox News headline is a good example: "Antifa's violent confrontations with police, journalists mar otherwise peaceful rally counterprotesters."

So was the rally "peaceful" or "violent"?  You decide:

The D.C. Antifa group marched around the downtown area as camera phones caught members throwing eggs and water bottles and shooting fireworks at cops and journalists.  The events were also relayed by some media members on the ground.

In a tense scene about a half-mile from the White House, police appeared to shove back the advancing Antifa group.  One officer used pepper spray, but officials said no tear gas was used.

A video posted on Twitter showed Antifa members violently attacking a police officer on a motorcycle as he drove through the crowd.

According to the article, the demonstration "attracted about 150-200 Antifa members, many wearing black masks."  The protest "also boasted hundreds of non-violent counter-protesters who weren't affiliated with Antifa and were mostly peaceful in their demonstrations against the white nationalists."

So we have a couple of hundred violent thugs running around attacking cops and journalists and "several hundred" unaffiliated protesters who were "mostly peaceful."

Pardon my denseness, but does that sound like a "peaceful protest" that was "marred" by a little violence?

I have no doubt many of the counter-protesters were peaceful and had peaceful intentions.  But that hardly made the protest itself "peaceful" despite efforts by the media to portray it as such.