Aaron Sorkin, when asked how to portray a villain characters, says
"You (the author) cannot think of them as a villain. You can't judge the character… You have to be able to empathize with that character. Find something about that character that is like you too. And you have to write that character like they're making their case to God why they should be allowed to heaven. "
There was an attack last weekend at the No King’s protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, where a bystander—fashion designer Arthur Foals An Loo—was shot and killed. The incident received little attention because, over the same weekend, a man named Vance Luther Boelter assassinated Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband. Earlier that morning, Boelter had also shot and critically injured State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Boelter also killed Hortman's family rescued dog Gilbert — a golden retriever, who was ‘too happy-go-lucky’ to be a service dog.
Mike Lee, a U.S. Senator from Utah, tweeted, “This is what happens. When Marxists don’t get their way,” baselessly suggesting that Boelter was a Marxist. However, as many people—including Paul Graham—have pointed out, Boelter was actually a conservative who voted for Trump in the last election.
Indeed, I find it very hard to portray Senator Lee and his friends as villains.