They just got better at hiding it, ironically because of Gamergate. Remember how openly smug they acted during gg? They thought labeling someone a "shitlord" and "neckbeard" was all they needed to unperson someone. Remember how activists like Big Red became laughing stocks?
When those labels became ineffective, they escalated: racist, sexist, transphobe, alt-right, nazi, fascist, etc. But the desired outcome remained the same. They want us gone. "No bad tactics, only bad targets".
They became better at obfuscating their intentions, they hide behing platitudes and slogans
Nobody in the media at the time wanted to accept it, and despite their best efforts, especially to this day since KSU is still lefty anyway, they want to bury the fact that most people agreed with what the Governor was doing. They still claim crazy things like the NG troops fired directly into the crowd, which wasn't possible considering the injuries came from all over campus, as they were firing into the air. They were firing into the air because the Communists were hurling stones, bricks, and bottles into their face, and they had backed themselves into a fence and could no longer maneuver. The reason that none of the guardsmen were charged was because the courts deduced that they were in reasonable fear for their lives given that communists hand seized the University, burned down the RTOC building, and were using weapons that could cause them grievous bodily harm.
Not that the Left are prepared to admit that. Where the guard actually fucked up is that they were the ones who maneuvered themselves out of position, and no one actually came to assist or evacuate them. Basically, the reason no one gave an order to fire, is because the men were trying to get Communists to stop pelting them with bricks, and they felt their lives were in danger.
As for the Coal Wars, I can actually see some legitimacy with some of those where it's a shoot out at a "company town" or the like where labor & company relations had been simmering for years. It wasn't just the workers that had 'thugs'.
That being said, as you note, the Communists would go looking for these situations and agitate them to a maximum potential level. Normally that meant getting killers and thugs to torture and murder "scags" who didn't do what the union wanted, when it wanted. I read more than a few instances of times when Communists would agitate for a couple years, then leave right before the shooting started and just raise their hands and go "Not me! I'm not involved!"
John Brown wasn't even a Leftist. I doubt he even knew what it was. I think they just affiliate themselves with him because he was a maniac. They don't talk about his murders.
I need to know more about Cassius Clay, because the way that the Steven Spielberg movie portrayed him, he was probably crazier than John Brown, and more corrupt than all of Lincoln's staff, but was actually competent. Depending on his approach to the South, he might belong in the Villain column.
Yeah, Brown was just a religious zealot, who literally believed he had heard the word of God tell him to go on a genuine, unironic Crusade and that the Southern Plantation owners were actually demons in the service of the Devil, and that by igniting a slave revolt it would bring the righteous hand of God to smite the demons. I am sure it is just a coincidence this didnt lend to excellent tactical command and resulted in his forces walking into numerous ambushes until, like I said, no Jayhawk or Redleg wanted anything to do with him and told him to do his own thing.
It was mostly me just commenting on how he is the cause celeb among a lot of Leftist as a "symbol of revolution", yet he was a religious zealot (which they would claim they hate) and failed at basically everything he did and only accomplished escalating tensions and violence to the point it made sure the Civil War could not possibly be avoided.
I dont really know about his time as a politician as he was actually not in the political arena all that long (he served one term in Kentucky before being run out by a coordinated campaign because of being an abolitionist), and spent far more of his time as an activist giving speeches. I could see some ways he was crazier than John Brown (after all, after getting jump by 6 assassins and managing to kill almost all of them, his only response was "I felt the utmost indignation"), he was actually one of the single most effective Abolitionist in the United States in terms of actually changing peoples minds. On top of getting Russian help for the Union during the Civil War (they provided some warships to help hunt Confederate blockade runners) and helping to negotiate the purchase of Alaska while he was ambassador to Russia. I thought you had seen this one before?