Aren’t we all supposed to be antifa?

I always thought the default position was to be against fascists. I’m proud to be anti-fascists.

I guess if you’re anti-antifa, that must make you fa.

“No!” some of my well-meaning liberal friends say. “They’re violent and violence is always bad!”

Well, first of all, let me roll my eyes in disbelief. Then, let me point out a few things:

  • The nazis, klan members, and Trump supporters who march through town wearing swastikas, Confederate flags and klan flyers while shouting “Jews will not replace us” are not only advocating violence, they are literally killing people.  And they’re killing people because of who they are — over things they have no control over, like their race, sex, nationality, and sexual identity.
  • Antifa people are responding to them. If the fascists go away, the antifa people will too.
  • Some asshole nazi-supporting reporter gets beaten? Yeah, that shouldn’t have happened. But that’s it? That’s the one example? How many mass shootings by white supremacists do we need on the other side to say “That is so minor in comparison”?
  • There is no coordinated antifa organization. It’s just something you identify yourself as, like being a Beatles fan. There’s no dues. There’s no leader… As opposed to the klan and the nazis and the goddamn Republican party, with its leader that has inspired more terrorist attacks in the last two years than any ISIS leader.
  • Throwing milkshakes at people isn’t violence. It’s not meant to harm them, it’s meant to humiliate them. It’s for us to laugh at them, because they don’t know how to handle being laughed at.
  • There is no way to equate milkshake throwing with murder.
  • There is absolutely no evidence of “cement mixed into milkshakes.” That’s a complete lie made up by right-wing fanatics without any proof to it.
  • The reason some antifa people wear masks to hide their faces is because these nazis on the other side have guns and want to kill them.
  • A very small percentage of antifa people have committed minor crimes of violence, but nothing compared to what the nazis, klan members, Trump supporters and fascists have committed. It is possible to be against all violence, from either side, and still be anti-fascist.

One thought on “Aren’t we all supposed to be antifa?

  1. I’m saddened by the fact that from my point of view, It’s happening again. People being killed, just like civil rights activists were back in the 60’s. A friend of mine & I were discussing how some current events had similarities to one of the fictional movies that we both recently seen, “Mississippi Burning”, which apparently was inspired by real events. He even recommended I watch “Ghosts of Mississippi”, which I haven’t seen, stating that in his opinion it did a better portrayal of what happened during that turbulent decade. Plus we both noted that there appear to be several movies like “Ghosts of Mississippi” (at least according to cursory googling), and we both found that a little bit disturbing considering the trajectory of some current events. Basically, we were thinking, “Are there going to be similar injustices like the ones the movies highlight?”. Unfortunately, we had to conclude it was likely. I think we were a little appalled when we had to concede that society hasn’t gotten past that stuff like we originally would have liked to have thought.

    And I think the same sort of situation applies here, (like Michael Ventrella is pointing out above) we originally thought “After all the U.S. went through in WWII, aren’t we all anti-fascist?”.

    Like

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