Antifa called out by mainstream media; wow now that's huge

Editor: Philip Ragner | Tactical Investor

Antifa called out by mainstream media

Here’s one for the history books. The Washington Post, the very liberal-leaning Washington Post, actually blasted a headline that summed and supported the so-called “right-wing” side of post-Charlottesville things.

Check the skies. Pigs must be flying.

“Black-clad Antifa attack peaceful right-wing demonstrators in Berkeley,” the Monday headline sang.

Hum sounds like pure BS

“Their faces are hidden behind black bandannas and hoodies, about 100 anarchists and antifa — “Antifascist” — barreled into a protest Sunday afternoon in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Jumping over plastic and concrete barriers, the group melted into a larger crowd of around 2,000 that had marched peacefully throughout the sunny afternoon for a ‘Rally Against hate’ gathering.”

All this — despite the fact the rally against the city’s progressive-style of politicking had been canceled, due to expected violence. What’s notable about the coverage is that post-Charlottesville, the news of that violent clash had focused entirely on the white nationalist angle — that since white nationalists had dared to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, and these white nationalists carried torches, they pretty much deserved the attacks they received from the antifa-types. Forgotten, ignored was the fact that even white nationalists have First Amendment rights, and that their protest was permitted. The antifa-type counter-protesters who came with clubs to demonstrate their angst did not. Full Story

The ‘Alt-Left’: Everything You Need to Know

“OK, what about the alt-left,” Trump proffered, “what about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right?”

So, what about the alt-left? Does it exist, or is it another bullet-dipped-in-pigs-blood fairy tale of Trump’s imagination?

Though it began as an insult within the left – a way to further deride the far left and so-called “Bernie Bros” during and after November’s election – the right has adopted the phrase, as well. Sean Hannity and other, fringier monsters of the far-right media ecosystem have been, for at least a year now, pushing the idea of the “alt-left” as some sort of answer to the charge that the “alt-right,” a very real political entity, has hijacked and poisoned the Republican party. The Washington Post best described it in 2016 as “The GOP’s response: I know what you are but what am I.”

“By the mid-2000s it started to peter out,” says Mark Bray, a visiting historian of political radicalism at Dartmouth and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, which comes out later this month. But now, thanks to white supremacists’ newfound confidence to step out in to public, the old A.R.A.-style groups have made a comeback, rebranded in the age of Trump.

“There’s come another wave of folks who started to use the antifa name instead of Anti-Racist Action, and a lot of those groups started to get going in 2011, 2012 and 2013,” says Bray. It was around this time that white supremacist Richard Spencer coined the term “alt-right.” The rise of that movement served as an accelerant for the nascent antifa groups to expand into what Trump refers to today.

“As someone who pays attention to what goes on with the far left in the U.S., [anti-facism has become] a focal point for politics that was not on the radar back when Occupy Wall Street was going on,” he says. “There were groups, but it wasn’t a focus on the left.” Full Story

The case against Antifa

Antifa beat down apparent alt-righter. pic.twitter.com/WVdDJqLKmA
— Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) August 27, 2017

The attack on peaceful right-wing protesters has once again invigorated debates over the use of political violence — discussions that go back to a protester punching white nationalist Richard Spencer in the face during rallies against President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Such violence violates longstanding political norms in the US, and many Americans find anypolitical violence deplorable — but it’s now a topic of conversation nonetheless.

The argument for antifa activists is that the current crop of right-wing protesters — which are partly but not entirely made up of neo-Nazis, KKK members, and other white supremacists and nationalists — are so extreme that they must be stopped swiftly and even violently. Antifa supporters worry that if these groups’ views aren’t completely robbed of any kind of platform, they could gain legitimacy — and take advantage of democratic ideals like free speech to, ironically, promote their undemocratic messages. Violence is one way to get them off the stage. Full Story

Antifa called out by mainstream media; wow now that’s huge