The Washington Times demonstrates how to fake an Antifa attack

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The only existence that any kind of organization exists calling itself antifa was when I saw the cringey “We Are The Antifa” song when I saw Ministry in my city in 2018.

It was super cringey to hear Al sing “we’re not snowflakes, we are the antifa!”

Other than that, the show kicked ass

I’m liberal as hell and might actually entertain joining an organization but it’s just kind of a loosely-knit ethos that is not a formal group in any sense of the word like these MAGA people. They’ve fabricated this boogeyman out of thin air for the most part.

I mean you could argue the resistance in Portland and Seattle was antifa but I think that was just people protesting. I’m sure some of them had that mindset but I don’t see an equivalence.

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Profa

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Thanks Antifa

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Well, duh. Because that’s how far the Antifa has infiltrated our beloved patriots™. They keep showing up trying to despoil our fine movement!

/s if that’s not clear, folks :slight_smile:

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Well, strike me down.

Also from the WaTimes article:

A video on social media also seems to show people wearing Trump “Make America Great Again” paraphernalia shouting “Antifa, Antifa” as a man with some type of instrument tried to smash a window and break into the Capitol. MAGA people then forcibly subdued the man to prevent further damage. (emphasis mine and mine)

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antifalovesrudy
antifalovesrudy1123×625 83.5 KB

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“retweeting anti-Antifa grifter Andy Ngo.”

If you’re anti-anti-fascist, doesn’t that just make you a fascist?

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Its amazing that some people are so dumb and marinaded in buckets of their own shit that they can imagine an anti fascist activist writing that.

Nuts that’s where we are I guess.

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A little history on Portland antifa, since many people who should know better don’t understand the origins or reasons for the resurgence in antifa activities:

Origin: While there may have been some activity earlier, antifa really started making their presence felt locally in the 1980s as a counter to white supremacist skinheads who marauded the city beating up, and sometimes killing, vulnerable people.

Portland was a prime recruiting ground for white supremacists, and in 1988 three White Aryan Resistance backers murdered Ethiopian graduate student Mulugeta Seraw on the city’s east side. In response to the brutal, senseless killing, the Southern Poverty Law Center led a successful wrongful-death suit against California-based WAR founder Tom Metzger.

The article doesn’t mention antifa, but what happened was that locals started countering the white supremacists (some local, but also predecessors to today’s Hate Tourists) openly, essentially creating a harder target as a focus for the skinheads’ violence.

Modern resurgence: Similarly, during the rise of MAGA, Hate Tourists like Patriot Prayer, the Proud Boys, and other white supremacist groups converged from all over the country in Portland, vulnerable people were targeted and beaten. The Portland Police did nothing, claiming that they couldn’t infringe on the groups’ 1A rights (note the contrast there with BLM protests!). Locals once again came out to directly counter these groups, in lieu of the police, to provide a shield against the harm to vulnerable communities who previously bore the brunt of the Hate Tourists’ violence.

So, at least here, it’s not just protest. It’s a form of community policing against groups coming from out of town to cause violence, when the police have abdicated their responsibility (or when they’ve outright supported the Hate Tourists).

I find it particularly harmful when people talk about Portland antifa as some kind of boogeyman. They are just normal people, doing normal things, and there wouldn’t be anything like antifa without the presence of the Hate Tourists.

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Agreed. Interesting

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In Britain, Antifa was a continuation of Anti-Fascist Action (the reason why I sometime capitalise it as AntiFA) which started in 1985 after the Anti-Nazi League ended operations. They have been in existence since at least 2005.

There is also the Anti-Fascist Network, who could be argued to be the next generation of antifascist activists.

I know some people like the idea of a tangible group that they can join and go on peaceful marches with, but with the things that antifa does that’s how you get infiltrated by cops and fascists and peoples lives get put in danger (both antifa and the people they protect.) Join the Iron Front or something if you want that kind of organisation though.

I have survived living somewhere where there were fascists and no antifa. Never Again!

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Pretty much.

It strikes me that there is probably a longer history of anti-fascist in PNW, much like @anon73430903 describes in the UK. I know in 1919 or so there was a general strike in Seattle in 1919 that was part of the justification for the Red Summer. It was a state response to both anti-racism and radical politics.

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Indeed, necessarily so from time to time it seems.

(the Silver Shirts described in that article had a brief but widespread PNW membership at one point, the linked part II of that article gets into clashes with the IWW and the 1919 massacre. Weird parallels with Qanon and tin-foil hat type stuff from back in the day too)

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Oregon was founded as a white only territory…

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Likewise, I supported the Anti-Nazi League in the late 70’s, which is a direct forerunner of Antifa, it’s literally the same thing, and I, like many back then who opposed skinhead bootboys with extremist views who were supporters of the NF, the National Front, were not ‘extreme Left’, or even Communists; dammit, I didn’t even vote for the Labour Party, who are socialists, but anyone with a properly aligned moral compass would stand up against the sort of rhetoric thrown out by the NF then, and Drumph and the MAGA-cultists now, it’s only right and proper.
I do wear Antifa badges, a neck-warmer thing, and use the Antifa logo as my avatar, although it’s not so widely known here in the U.K., mainly because our society hasn’t become as polarised as it has in the US; I do fear for the future over there, it’s like seeing a whole bunch of dystopian science fiction novels and movies playing out in real time and in the real world.
As an ancient proverb says, ‘may you live in interesting times’…

“ “retweeting anti-Antifa grifter Andy Ngo.”

If you’re anti-anti-fascist, doesn’t that just make you a fascist?”
Yup, and I always give a wry smile when I see such comments.

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