The Great 2020 Antifa Scare

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Shane Burley
@shane_burley1
The idea that Antifa is a danger to society is a right-wing con job done to trump up fear and initiate violence against the left. And it has worked remarkably well.

The Great 2020 Antifa Scare
Over the last six years, the U.S. has seen a mass wave of nativism that has shifted the “Overton Window” of acceptable politics, making once-marginal aspects of anti-immigrant ideology a part of the...
politicalresearch.org
7:33 PM · Aug 1, 2021

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2021/07/13/great-2020-antifa-scare

*snip*

Antifascism called into question what most European and American countries said they were: publicly opposed to inequality and celebrating democracy, at the same time that White identity extended the violence of colonialism into modernity. Now everyone has a hand in fighting fascism, with groups popping up around the country, some using the “antifa” branding, some going with larger non-profits, and all finding a certain common language in the mass action. The Trump presidency brought the return of massive, city shuttering, street-blocking protests, from the Women’s March, to anti-Trump mobilizations, to the fight against racist police violence in 2020. These are all under the banner of antifascism, implicitly or explicitly, but it made sense to almost everyone because the impending threat of fascism was no longer ephemeral. People were collectively responding, not only to the seemingly impulsive violence of small White nationalist groups, but also to the massive growth of Trumpism as a street-level movement with violent potential; the growth of massive far-right organizations training for war; and a potentially captured state set on border imperialism, mass incarceration, and the validation of White supremacy.

Even more, “antifa” itself became a buzzword, and less for what the term actually meant and more because of the fears right-wing pundits could place on it. Thanks to far-right grifters like Andy Ngo and Tucker Carlson, the word “antifa” has been divorced from its meaning (militant antifascist organizing) and has now become the default word for all left-wing protests with an antiracist edge. Black Lives Matter, labor actions, mutual aid networks, immigration protesters, and abortion clinic defense have now all been painted as “antifa,” and antifa is a proxy for every fear that the Right has conjured up about what an insurgent Left is capable of.

The violence of the Right—itself a lethal pandemic that touches all of our lives—is reframed as self-defense when paired with a hollowed-out image of antifa. Reality has become malleable, and just as “Fake News” stole our shared understanding of events, so has edited video footage, viral tweets, and dishonest testimonials. Antifa is everywhere and nowhere, simultaneously bringing down society and composed of nothing but lazy millennials. Antifa is now a stand-in for every cultural trend the Right finds frightening. This would be ridiculous if it didn’t have such dire consequences, as senators and attorneys general vie to label antifascism as terrorist criminality, potential prosecutions become a viable threat, and the Far Right is egged on to murderous attacks.

“At this moment the people are a real threat to their power and they’re desperate to discredit the movement because it’s growing and spreading so rapidly they can’t contain it,” says Effie Baum, an organizer with the antifascist group PopMob.

*snip*

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Exactly, the only people scared of Antifa

were those who were afraid Antifa would be blamed on them.

The left, a loose collection of non-Antifa, were wise not to engage on Jan 6.

An TFG really goofed by not deploying fake Antifa's to blame for the insurrection.

[LeftInTX]

2. I'm not particular found of Antifa

I generally find them annoying and counterproductive, but I'm certainly not scared of them...

[maxsolomon]

6. What specific wrongs do you lay at their feet?

Anything beyond the protests at the Federal Building in Portland?

Do you dislike it when they oppose Fascist political actions?

[LeftInTX]

7. They kinda screwed up the BLM protests

They're mostly white rich kids

[maxsolomon]

8. How do you know that? Do you know a lot of people in Antifa?

Most of the Direct Action kids I met in Tacoma are pretty punk rock.

I know of exactly 1 person who was confirmed Antifa: Michael Reineohl, and he was most definitely not rich or a kid.

[LeftInTX]

9. They got mad at my friend for wearing a pussy hat

Said pussy hats were "white privilege"
Then if you entered the room: "Check your privilege at the door"...They would yell at everyone.

They really are annoying. Forget that.....

[maxsolomon]

10. good lord, where did that happen?

in texas?

[LeftInTX]

12. San Antonio

[LeftInTX]

11. They also cover their faces and carry flags with sickles on them

Why??

[maxsolomon]

13. I dunno about the sickle flag, I've never seen that. maybe they're communists.

Covering your face is probably a good idea for 3 reasons:
1. Covid 19
2. Getting doxxed by Fascists
3. Getting arrested by cops

San Antonio Antifa sounds like it skews young and idealistic.

[LeftInTX]

14. This was in 2017...

The ones covering their faces said they had a reason for it..
Without their masks they were young girls with non-descript features, who said they always covered their faces when they carried the hammer and sickle flag....They said it was a a tradition...

My friend asked them what the flag was about LOL
I knew exactly what it was...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Republicans have spent years saying they don't want America to turn into a Socialist country.

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. For this thread

Link to tweet

[Volaris]

5. Anybody who has a problem with that flyer, can kiss my dick.

Anybody who has a problem with america being anti-nazi can come fight ME, I'll be HAPPY to punch some nazi shitheads.

[maxsolomon]

15. Here's a key sentence:

"Thanks to far-right grifters like Andy Ngo and Tucker Carlson, the word “antifa” has been divorced from its meaning (militant antifascist organizing) and has now become the default word for all left-wing protests with an antiracist edge."

This has been my observation as well: There were Anfifa flags at the BLM protest I attended last summer, but it wasn't an Antifa protest. It was a BLM protest, led by Af-Am youth.

Antifa actions have a specific purpose: to oppose Fascists whenever they show their faces in an organized way.

That's not what the "Far Left" does. Not what Zerzan Anarchists do, no what Black Bloc does, not what Direct Action does. Any Crusty in a Crass jacket is now Antifa, and co-equal with a 3 Percenter or a Proud Boy as the opposite side of the coin.

The RW always defines the narrative because Whipipo are so easily scared.