Tina Fey was beloved for her comedic ridicule of the right until she wasn’t. Over a sheet cake and not wanting to violently attack people when the mob demanded violence. Oh, to be adored on the pedestal of social justice one minute and a she-devil the next. So exhausting.

But if you think that’s exhausting, it’s nothing compared to the heavy lifting demanded of the New York Times editorial board, faced with the impossible task of explaining away the “armed militias” of the right. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of what happened in Charlottesville was that no one fired a bullet. But no one did.

Even before violence erupted in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend, city residents and the police anxiously watched the arrival of self-styled militias — swaggering gangs of armed civilians in combat fatigues — standing guard over the protest by white supremacists and other racist agitators against the removal of a Confederate statue.

Armed swaggering gangs sounds ominous, indeed. Of course, the marching protesters for bad purposes were forewarned that they would be met by counter-protesters bent on violence. Arms can be used to attack or to defend. No bullets were fired. If someone swung a bat at your head, there could well be legal justification to use deadly force to defend oneself, swagger or not. But no bullets were fired.

In brandishing weapons in Charlottesville, the militiamen added an edge of intimidation to a protest that was ostensibly called as an exercise in free speech. By flaunting their right to bear arms, they made a stark statement in a looming public confrontation.

Brandishing is a loaded word, used improperly but deliberately here. Did they point a gun at someone’s head? Or did they have guns slung on their arms, openly visible on their belts. What distinguishes the right to bear arms from “flaunting” that right?

A “confrontation” takes two sides. No, that doesn’t have anything to do with the merit of their causes, as it’s true regardless of why they’re marching. If the “swaggering” protesters “flaunting” their rights weren’t met by the virtuous counter-protesters defending truth and justice, armed and primed for violence, but for the good kind of violence, there would be no confrontation.

The limits of that freedom are being increasingly tested by jury-rigged militias at demonstrations, public meetings and other political flash points around the nation. These strutting vigilantes have become such a threatening presence that government should rein them in to allow for a truly free exchange of ideas. State and federal laws would seem to allow their curtailment, provided that political leaders and the courts face up to the risks of mob rule.

So the only reason the “strutting” swaggerers got away with testing the limits of their rights is that cowardly political leaders and courts refuse to face up to the risks of mob rule? And if these cowards hadn’t been cowed, it would allow for “a truly free exchange of ideas,” like a pleasant chat as to why white supremacy is a valid ideology?

The effort required to spin reality into this Twilight Zone fiction could not have been easy, and whoever penned this editorial deserves battle pay, having transcended the bounds of anything remotely rational, even to the wildest-eyed believer in the cause. But no, they didn’t completely omit any reference to the Antifa, albeit in a parenthetical.

(The protest also drew “antifa” — anti-fascist — counterprotesters on the political left, ready to brawl with fists and sticks against those on the other side.)

Would there have been swaggering strutters brandishing weapons to flaunt their rights if people took Tina Fey’s advice and laughed at them rather than been “ready” to brawl? Maybe, and they would have still been within their rights as the law, crafted and enforced by cowards, provides. How silly they would have looked if they came ready to fight and no one cared.

But there was a protest by Naxos desperate for recognition, and they were met by God’s Army to beat them for their horrible ideas which were literally violence (but could have been part of a “truly free exchange of ideas” if they just didn’t swagger and strut so damn much).

And yet, not a single bullet was fired.