I’m sure you’ve heard the word “antifa” in the news! Antifa, or anti-fascists, have claimed responsibility for hundreds of protests in the last few years, especially this summer. They’ve marched, harassed, vandalized, or set on fire Federal buildings, white/black businesses, & state/federal statues. I follow several ‘streamers’ in Portland, OR and other cities, who post real life videos, so I’m up to date.
Antifa should be separated from BLM, the black identity group. Some in BLM have legitimate complaints like police reform, but the leaders of BLM have posted an online statement that is a broad political agenda based on Marxist, anti-god principles. The group has often used physical violence and members have called for the end to ‘white supremacy’ by any means possible.
Antifa, however, are a growing conglomeration of independent or organized cells of mostly youth who are either anti-Federal Govt, anti-Trump, anti-Ice or anti-police …. or all the above. They might be a group of university students, socialists, anarchists, criminals or street people often struggling with sexual identity. I’ve tweeted with dozens of them, I read their bio’s & how they describe themselves. Their existence is no secret, but their true identities are. They basically refuse to be open with their beliefs or have direct dialog with anyone.
They’ve racked up millions upon millions of dollars in damage over-time. They’ve caused some city governments considerable grief and havoc. There’s great debate over who’s funding them, as many are constantly being arrested at the scenes of destructive protests with out of state I.D.’s. Someone has to be paying for their flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. What person or group wants to create such chaos and destruction to America by funding it incognito?
My introduction to antifa was several years ago when a Hispanic guy on Facebook shared his trips to Berkley, CA with friends to stand up for the ‘flag’. I guess I thought the UCB students were young & didn’t like the political Right speaking at their university. A Right speaker had recently been ejected from speaking there. The Hispanic guy shared on FB videos of a group in yelling matches with what I thought were vicious sounding radical college students.
This was at the beginning of the period where Left leaning students were angry and outraged about anyone who had patriotic views, (before Trump). I don’t know if protesters thought the speakers would incite violence, or if they simply disagreed with their views, but the people on the Right were often shouted down, or simply denied the right to speak on campus. Antifa wasn’t physically violent much yet.
I remember a couple years ago Chuck Todd hesitantly interviewing Mark Bray, a Dartmouth lecturer, on Face the Nation. Chuck said he was not really interested in giving ‘violence’ a voice, but in the interest of ‘fairness’ he’d interview Mr. Bray. I was sick to my stomach listening to them. Antifa, according to Mr. B’s book & interview, “have the right to use clubs to beat down the Alt Right”. He was straight faced and unapologetic in stating the use of violence was an essential part of beating back any foe.
Since no mainstream news site has reported organized alt-right hate groups much at all, we can only surmise that the Left’s fear of conservatives speaking at universities is unfounded! There are small isolated groups of white militia but I’ve not read of any KKK groups, skinheads organizing to topple American federal buildings, statues, businesses, police stations or protesting against blacks ….. or the MSM would be all over it! TV media in different cities many times reports when antifa groups are protesting. We know there’s destruction going on in our cities, but we don’t hear of white supremacy groups burning, looting, or plotting overthrow of the govt.
In contrast a few Democrats are actually espousing hatred for “whites”, conservatives, and Law Enforcement. They aren’t just old time Democrats or progressives but are entrenched in black militancy, or Leftist jargon. And these leaders are afraid of or blind to the threat from anarchists like antifa.
I’ve watched resistance movements grow since the 2012 Occupy Wall Street movement in Portland, OR, a city I’ve visited many times. There’s always some new catchy phrase describing their ‘moral’ objective, but their means is always to create a violent setting to destroy American values, laws. They profess to be victims, but choose to victimize their opponents. They prefer to work underground like criminals, and instruct their members thru propaganda on social media. Their violent tactics go beyond the streets and include stalking of leaders, phone or online harassment, bombing, threats to family members and jobs..
This is the type of issue that police and strong leaders are dealing with, and the more informed we are of antifa, the better. They attack billionaires, political leaders, ordinary people, no one is immune.
We need to vote for those who are aware of anarchist groups, so we protect our nation. We need to help people remove the blinders so they aren’t fearful of street violence and protect themselves!