What the hell is the Antifa?
They are just not a thing.
I’ve been asking that question for weeks. I’ve been a committed lefty for an alarming number of years. I know who Saul Alinski was. I’ve read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I know who the SDS is, for crying out loud. But I’d never heard of the Antifa before a few weeks ago.
Antifascist? Sure
I’ve been following the right wing lunatics for a long time. Years ago, I knew the only place in town to find a Communist Party Newspaper was at the John Birch Society Book Store. I used to go in there, pick up any free propaganda they were handing out and then take it home so I and my friends could laugh at it.
I don’t know if such a place still exists. I doubt it does, because these days few would want to be caught working there in public view. One of the things the Antifa does on a regular basis is “outing,” — now called “doxxing” — racists, white supremacists, fascists, Nazis and fellow travelers. It’s an effective tactic because those people are widely viewed as violent and dangerous thugs. Nazis usually don’t want to be associated with their own movement.
In movies and tv, white supremacists are often depicted as criminals with poor hygiene and bad tattoos that they probably got in prison. And, truly, in real life a lot of them look like they are out of central casting. When the camera pans across the “protesters” we all know which ones are the racists, KKK, Nazis, fascists, “alt right,” etc. We go “Yep! That’s them!”
If you are curious about the Antifa, you can do a web search, but there are so many fake Antifa websites, it’s hard to find out anything about them. Naturally, racists don’t like them and the people who run the Stormfront website or any of the other associated human slime pits (I won’t be linking to any of them) are all web savvy enough to set up fake Twitter accounts and fake Facebook pages. I won’t link to those either.
This appears to be a legit article about the Antifa, and this. This seems to be an honest article about them, as well as this. I say “seems” because it’s hard to know what’s true on the internet.
Antifa and alt-right are not equal
People keep trying to gauge how evil these movements are by talking about who killed how many in the middle of the last century. Are Nazis more evil? Or Soviet Russia and Red China?
That entire discussion is a red herring.
The people we have in front of us today have little to do with Hitler or Stalin/Mao. The alt-right is a white power movement that actually recruits and tries to persuade others to their viewpoint. Protected by the First Amendment, they have rallies, conferences, speaker events, hand out leaflets, get booked on right-wing radio shows, run websites and even run for office. Generally speaking, they argue that white people are endangered and oppressed (no, really!). The alt-right movement relitigates the Civil War and wants to resuscitate Jim Crow.
The Antifa opposes all that. Their Twitter/Facebook presence and their websites are devoted to opposing the fascist alt-right. Social media is used to track and expose the above alt-right activity. When the alt-right risks showing up in public, Antifa shows up and counter-protests. They take video and photos and expose the alt-right to the sunlight of public view.
The People’s Republic of Berkeley
Yes, they are over the top. Yes, they think that if the alt-right is violent (it certainly is) then it’s okay to use violence against them.
That is the rational thinking of 3-year-olds.
If you look at Antifa activity as a whole — even mostly in Berkeley — you can see the violence they use is defensive. If someone throws a punch they are willing to punch back. They are prepared to do that.
The alt-right, trained to expect nonviolent resistance, are scandalized as are their more civilized conservative enablers who count on alt-right votes.
The Berkeley Antifa aren’t helping anybody. They have already been scolded for that.
Nobody scolds the alt-right for their open advocacy of genocide and violence. Mental health issues. Lone wolf. The police will deal with the worst of them. Their existence is convenient for Republican politics. Since Nixon, the Republicans have become skilled at pleasuring the racist alt-right with dog whistles and covert messages.
Trump Enterprises doesn’t understand that the message is supposed to be covert. Trump doesn’t do subtle. He knows the Republican party needs the alt-right and doesn’t get that these are supposed to be the secret crazy relatives in the attic.
The Antifa isn’t a thing.
I hear a lot from right wingers that the Antifa is Communist. It’s another red herring.
Yes, some of the members may identify as Communist because being anti-racist is associated with the left end of the political spectrum. Some may be anarchists for the same reason. But they don’t have any propaganda system trying to persuade people to those views. They don’t have conferences or speakers. No leaflets or flyers.
Their internet presence organizes protests. Whoever shows up, shows up. They aren’t a coherent movement. If the alt-right ever concedes that the South lost the Civil War and decides that the South will not rise again — when they admit that people of other races are human beings and not stolen property, then the Antifa will cease to exist.
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