I’m not sure how you make the leap from “fighting back in self-defense is not extremism” to “you’re effectively going ‘this person is garbage. Not worth trying to help. He made his choice and now we deem him worthy of only punishment.’”
These are fascists we’re discussing, not their enablers or their dupes. Being a fascist is not an immutable characteristic, but a choice. That choice usually involves supporting eliminationist policies and the downfall of Western liberal democratic institutions. Once they get any degree of power, they start pushing this agenda and the time for trying to politely reason with them is done – it is indeed time to fight back in self-defence.
This does not necessarily equate to fighting back with violence or calling someone subhuman (though there are those in the small and loud antifa/anarkiddie movement who do both), but taking a stand does equate to stating, quite clearly, that making the choice to be a fascist makes one deplorable and worthy of contempt and is unacceptable by decent human beings. In the political sphere sometimes public shaming is enough to get someone to change his bad choice.
