As someone who self-identifies as fairly radical (though radicalism has grown quite a bit and now that I think about it, I'm rather more tame these days by comparison)
I'm curious, is not being strongly in favor of one side or the other considered bad nowadays? It seems to be so, at least to me, what with the whole "You're with us or against us" and "We need to be extreme in order to counter their extremism".
Frankly, I'm just disheartened by the whole situation
I don't think so. There's plenty of people out there who think that way. But it's more that people in the middle can actually get in the way fairly often. Current example is the debate over how much respect and free speech to offer "alt-right" types and contest them in the marketplace of ideas vs strictly shunning them. I think the issue here is varying interpretation of the stakes involved and goals of different groups. Where those who claim a middle ground think it's because they're at some point on a gradient, others look at the more technical moving parts of the situation and point out that the practical effect they have on the situation isn't very gradient-like or compromising at all.
From the perspective of those who are trying to claim middle ground and propose compromises, what's at stake is the solidarity of some central tenets of our democratic society - freedom of speech and belief and such. And I can respect that in essence. And they claim theirs is the middle ground because they still think the nazis should be contested, just in a different way that doesn't compromise our values. They're also concerned that not extending those same values to them the same way we do to everyone else garners them sympathy, because they play off this true victim narrative and makes them more visible.
From my perspective, what's at stake is literally the nazis ability to legitimize themselves and organize. To realize their potential strength of numbers and conviction, and prove that the time has come that they are able to band together and pursue their goals again. I think the true victim narrative is a red herring, and that the more visible our disapproval of them is, the less of them will be willing to come out of hiding, organize, and gather power. I see the centrist's middle ground approach as literally handing them the victory in this struggle. Not a middle ground at all. Their position is not just another point on a gradient. It is tangibly, by definition in opposition to my stance on the issue.
Does this make sense?
Does third party groups trying to put out the fire include cops? Not surprising that they'd get maligned on both sides because both sides would say "You're not on our side!", whereas cops are usually recognized as being neutral, perhaps TOO neutral at times.
The radical leftist perspective on cops is that they don't just do their jobs. They do it with psychopathic pleasure, and a healthy serving of corruption on the side. And the state enables them to do so. Stake holders in major business or political conventions will literally pay for hosting cities to buy legal insurance policies that allow them to violate protester's rights and then pay out settlements in court later so that the event can go unchallenged. I wrote a very in-depth post on this in the past, which I will dig up again if necessary. And they don't go to nearly the same extent in shutting down conservative protest.
And I don't think the difference is in goals. I think it's in culture. Shared belief between ultra-conservatives and law enforcement in blunt authoritarianism and black & white worldviews, basically. That everything should be a certain way because that's just what feels right and if it isn't, then you make it by whatever means of force you can get away it. Conservatives support police because the law is generally on their side in cultural matters and their side falls into callous just-world view fallacies a lot more when anything about what they do ends up controversial. Unarmed black guy gets shot by police, they jump right into rifling through the victims history to see what he must have done to deserve it. The only reason some of them are turning on the police right now is partly over not favoring them strongly enough in their traditional alliance, and partly because they're just a convenient scapegoat right now for avoiding direct blame over how violent things got.