Antifa
(Instigators)
Alt-Right
(Note the Flags)
Neo-Nazis & White Supremacists
(Confederate supporters???)
The Boogaloo Boys
(Heavily armed)
My introduction: A very timely article from
The Hill (via MSN). A very fine article on Antifa; I added others, and ask: Where
do you stand Mr. and Mrs. America?
Many Americans profess one thing (e.g., being a loyal
American, peaceful with freedom of speech paramount, standing for law and
order, and justice, etc. etc.) yet somehow many also stand by, allow, tolerate,
and watch as the nation crumbles all around us and then they wonder why or
worse, they start the “blame game” apparently now our favorite pastime.
It truly is these days far too easy to blame while looking
the other way, isn't it, but few people seldom ever look in the mirror to see
the cause and the solution peering back at them.
This topic as noted in The Hill piece:
“Is Antifa the Greatest Movement Against Free Speech
in America?”
By Jonathan Turley: Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and Renowned
Attorney
If you follow news coverage
these days, the extremist movement known as antifa is either the new al-Qaeda
or the new “Big Foot.”
President Trump wants antifa
classified as a terrorist organization, while various Democratic politicians
insist it is just a conservative phantom. House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Jerrold Nadler even publicly insisted that accounts of antifa violence are a “myth and, on the House floor, called the accounts imaginary.”
While I oppose classifying
antifa as a terrorist organization, it is no myth. Indeed, it may be the most
successful movement against free speech in modern history. However, its
structure and tactics avoid easy detection, which is why so many claim the
group is an apparition.
My selected highlights from the article:
It is true that whenever
spontaneous, concentrated violence erupts, many people first look for antifa;
it is the usual suspect because it often is the culprit on university
campuses.
Antifa was founded on a
rejection of formal structures and leadership.
Many of the associated groups
are part of Anti-Racist Action and a loose coordinating organization known as
the “Torch Network.” This lack of structure not only appeals to the anarchist
elements of the movement but serves to evade both law enforcement and lawsuits.
The threat of this movement
is not its role in today's violence but its continued activities against free
speech nationwide. Both far left and far right groups have been identified in
rioting in various cities.
These extremist groups are particularly adept at
using social media and the internet to sow disorder, hide their identities and
frame opposing groups for their own activities.
Notably in the last week, Richmond
police identified both antifa and “Boogaloo Boys” in violent protests
in that city.
It is all part of what Attorney General William Barr referred to
as the “witches brew of violent groups on both sides” such as antifa and other
similar groups.
Nevertheless, antifa members
have been arrested and antifa groups have been involved in violence in places
like Portland, Oregon.
Recently, the president of
Portland's NAACP wrote in the Washington Post to denounce what he called a “white
spectacle of violence” asking: “What are antifa and other leftist agitators
achieving for the cause of black equality?”
The answer is that Antifa is
not an ally to Black Lives Matter (BLM).
Antifa is about revolutionary
change and using demonstrations to trigger greater social unrest. It follows
the same purpose once misstated (perhaps a Freudian slip) by former Chicago
Mayor Richard Daley after the riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention: “The
police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder.” Antifa
fuels and feeds on violence.
Antifa has found ample allies
as its movement has grown. Because it primarily targets conservatives and the
free speech community, it has not been a major concern for some liberals or
Democrats.
Former Democratic National Committee deputy chairman Keith Ellison,
now Minnesota attorney general, once posed with a copy of “The Antifa
Handbook and said antifa would strike fear in the heart of @realDonaldTrump.”
This was after antifa had been
involved in countless violent acts and its website was banned in Germany.
Ellison's son, Minneapolis council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his
allegiance to antifa at the height of violent riots in that city in June.
That fact is that Antifa
primarily works to “strike fear” not in the heart of Trump but in the hearts of
anyone who opposes their movement.
“The Antifa Handbook” clearly states how the
group rejects the basic premise of free speech and has spent years organizing
violent protests to prevent opposing views - including conservatives, police,
immigration officials, and academics - from being heard.
That practice, known as
“no platforming,” has been adopted up by other groups as well. Often, antifa
violence gives universities or politicians cover for barring conservative
speakers.
Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi previously called for the revocation
of a permit for a conservative prayer group as a “security matter” in San
Francisco.
This fine article continues
at The
Hill link.
Also directly related is this
fine rundown on seven
things you need to know about Antifa from the BBC – an excellent list to
bookmark.
My 2 cents: First of all, I don’t trust Antifa any farther than I
can throw them.
More on Antifa I have been gathering: Violence has been
ratcheting up on all sides during white supremacist rallies in recent months (Charlottesville,
VA in 2017 good example) — but Antifa is not planning the rallies, and
statistically poses a lesser danger than Alt-Right. The chart below sets the
scene with this quote:
Words to
live by: “Violence or hate begets violence and hate.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alt-Right (Alternative Right): A loosely-connected and somewhat
ill-defined groups of white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis,
neo-Fascists, neo-Confederates, Holocaust deniers, and other extreme
far-right fringe hate groups, and now the Boogaloos (mostly armed) (my
earlier post about them, Alt-right, and others is here).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Antifa (Anti-Fascist): A conglomeration of far left wing autonomous, self-styled
anti-fascist militant groups. The principal feature of Antifa groups is their
use of direct action, harassing those whom they identify as fascists, racists,
or right wing extremists to stir up violence but usually not the starters (they are instigators).
Thanks for stopping by - stay well and healthy.
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