Alt-Right Rally And Counter Protest In Berkeley

wrath
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max never said they behaved like ISIS, just that they dressed like them, which they do.

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So do SWAT cops and special forces at work, only with better armor.

It was pretty clear what he was implying.

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Why is it that people are saying that the black bloc dress like ISIS, rather than the other way around? I know for a fact that the black bloc have been dressing like that for years before April 2013.

Bujt if it bothers so many people, maybe they should go back to dressing like Tute Bianche and the WOMBLES did in the 90s.

Edit:
Dressing all in white may be a problem in the US, so copying the Ya Basta Collective is probably a better move there.

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No, but see, only bad guys dress in black, didn’t you know. We can safely ignore them and anything they have to say if they dress in black! /s

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The old fart Republican “Young America’s Foundation”, who were funding these “guest speaker” events has officially pulled out of Ann Coulter’s Thursday event at UC Berkeley.

I don’t know if that means that the event is cancelled, or if they’re just spreading the CYA while unofficially supporting it to avoid responsibility if it turns ugly.

Breitbart comments are generally butthurt and confused about surrendering to violent wimp nazi snowflakes. /s

Hopefully YAF’s visibility as the funding organization for sock-puppet student fronts was causing them problems.

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Really? how they’re dressed matters more than their message?!

This strikes me as the clothes-based equivalent of tone-policing: “I can’t listen to what you say because of how you say it / how you are dressed”.

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The clothing is not really the issue. They could be dressed as clowns. But if they are trying to prevent someone else’s free assembly or speech, especially mine, I would be offended. The fact that they look like someone who is about to make a beheading video does not help, but it is a secondary issue.

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So, is it fair to say you could have said “But if I did want to listen to them, even just out of morbid curiosity, and someone wanted to stop me, I would be tremendously offended.” then?

The point I’m trying to make is your statement is valid without the tone/look policing. :slight_smile:

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90

the only thing that’s pretty clear is that you like jumping to conclusions.

and SWAT and special forces don’t always wear black, they often wear camo and green and many other colours, depending on the jurisdiction and deployment situation.

the only other thing I see in common between ISIS and antifa groups beside their fashion sense is that they both hold silly ideologies (and the silly ideology on the antifa side isn’t that fascism is bad, obviously, but that anarchism and various other dumb shit they tend to believe is good), and they’re both violent jerks (though the level of jerkitude is far greater on the ISIS side, which should go without saying obviously).

We can safely ignore them and anything they have to say if they dress in black! /s

We should ignore and ridicule them if they go around beating people up and if they try and interfere with people’s freedom of speech.

91

Fair enough.

92

My guess is that they are looking for donations to go towards “funding increased security.” Works for the government.

[quote=“caze, post:90, topic:99192”]
We should ignore and ridicule them if they go around beating people up and if they try and interfere with people’s freedom of speech.
[/quote]What is sad is that antifa is harming people’s freedom of speech, but not in the way you or max thinks. Antifa has harmed freedom of speech because they used a peaceful protest as the zebras they needed to vandalize property. It has actually enabled the fascists in charge of the executive branch to name all protesters as enemies of the state, and he doesn’t have the support to act on it but he certainly would. Thankfully, Trump is president and not governor or even mayor.

That is why antifa causes a problem, not the very idea of protesting speakers publicly. To say that is against freedom of speech is antithetical to freedom of speech, and branding antifa as thugs hunting down people to beat up is just enabling more of the propaganda that has sharply divided the country and normalized extreme authoritarian government.

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93

Yes, you’re right. But I think both are a problem, they allow cover for describing all forms of protest as violent protest, when it’s not. But they are also explicitly blocking, or attempting to block other people’s freedom of speech, which is wrong imho. So they harm both the rights of legitimate protestors, and the rights of the arseholes they’re protesting against. Both people deserve the same rights AFAIC, it doesn’t matter whether you or I agree with the content of the speech being prevented.

94

But right now they don’t have the same rights, the speakers have many more rights than the protesters. The speaker has the money and funding to block out dissension, and is actively attempting to through propaganda - but you are defending the propagandist’s right to use an unfair advantage in delivering speech by saying they are the same.

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I’m not saying they’re the same, I’m just saying that the use of violence is unacceptable and preventing someone from airing their views, and thus preventing others from evaluating - and countering those views if need be - is also unacceptable.

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That’s why I think that peaceful protestors need anti-Antifa tactics. Don’t give them a crowd to blend with or melt back into. Literally distance themselves. (That’s not new. It’s right in the Berkeley U suggestions.)

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Start wearing tie-dye?

image.jpg1200×1600 460 KB

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Or if there were some gaudy apparel item from a Pacific island that’s resisting Trump? (Some lefties claim that it’s a state now. I’m not saying either way, but other people, the best people, disagree. /s )

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Hmm…I like that.

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I love when I see comments like this (/s) because it tips me off to no longer take someone seriously… (equilibrium, it’s a thing!)

But seriously, I suppose you think those of us here that identify somewhere along the left-libertarian line are silly as well?

Most anarchists are pacifists, silly.

Care to expound further on what qualifies as “dumb shit”? Is it democracy? Equality? Free association? Empowerment of individuals and communities to control their own affairs? Living within our means as a species, and the equitable distribution of necessities for survival?

I would argue that it’s at least as stupid to believe that the prevailing socio-economic structures of the world can provide the tools for solving the existential crises we face as a species, considering in the least that these crises are born of (AGW, never-ending nuclear detente) or reinforced (incessant division, massive inequality, neo-colonialism) by them.

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

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What’s really sad is that more people in this country seem to care for broken windows than they do for human lives.

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