Europe has a long history of left-wing political violence, while in the United States political violence has been more likely to come from the right in recent decades
This so called history of left-wing political violence is extremely over-reported compared to the slew of actual attempts to terrorise people from the far right. Stories just from the German state of Hesse I can remember rn:
- guy who believes in replacement theory shoots dead 9 in Hanau
- police officers from Frankfurt use police database in attempt to intimidate lawyer representing families of NSU victims
- extremist murders center-right politician for having a somewhat nuanced view on asylum policy
- pride parades need police escorts after multiple interruptions and attack with pepper spray
- socialist and green party offices vandalised
- attempted arson at queer youth centre
- anti racist organisers attacked and beaten
While I concur that a hammer is not the right tool to win a political argument, I do understand that people feel threatened by fascists - it's because they are.
I stopped counting the "Indochina wars" im the 80s. France did for that region what the UK did for the middle east, to be sure.