80s fans all know “Lunatic Fringe” by Red Rider. 

Or they think they do. 

If you’ve seen the 80s movie “Vision Quest,” you either get chills when the guitar intro riffs right before the drums kick in, or you roll your eyes. 

Do you know what the song is about? It’s not love, personal triumph, or sports.

The song came out in 1981 and came back with a vengeance in 1985 with the movie. 

The song is about extremism and anti-semitism. Tom Cochrane knew he had to finish the song that night in the studio after he got the news that John Lennon was dead. 

It’s an appropriate song for current events.

If you listen closely at the beginning, you can barely hear someone say, “See you on the other side.”

It is an anthem that warns extremists that they are not invisible and won’t win. 

We think that the nutjobs appeared from the ether. They’ve always been with us; the ebb and flow of time requires that we periodically remind them there’s a reason they can’t feel welcome in public discourse. I grew up right in the middle of some of the most pernicious racists imaginable. Like most extremists, they lived in a bubble of self-perpetuating hate. 

Everyone who studies sociology knows the paradox of tolerance.

Red Rider hid a pointed societal warning right in our faces 45 years ago.