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Who are the antifa? President Trump equated them with white supremacists. Here's why he’s wrong.
The Washington Post ^ | August 16, 2017 | Mark Bray

Posted on 08/17/2017 6:40:17 PM PDT by Hadean

First bursting into the headlines when they shut down far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in February at the University of California at Berkeley, antifascists again captivated the public imagination by battling the fascists assembled at the “Unite the Right” white power rally in Charlottesville.

But what is antifa? Where did it come from? Militant anti-fascist or “antifa” (pronounced ANtifa) is a radical pan-leftist politics of social revolution applied to fighting the far right. Its adherents are predominantly communists, socialists and anarchists who reject turning to the police or the state to halt the advance of white supremacy. Instead they advocate popular opposition to fascism as we witnessed in Charlottesville.

The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists.

Antifascists argue that after the horrors of chattel slavery and the Holocaust, physical violence against white supremacists is both ethically justifiable and strategically effective. We should not, they argue, abstractly assess the ethical status of violence in the absence of the values and context behind it. Instead, they put forth an ethically consistent, historically informed argument for fighting Nazis before it’s too late. As Cornel West explained after surviving neo-Nazi attacks in Charlottesville, “If it hadn’t been for the antifascists protecting us from the neo-fascists, we would have been crushed like cockroaches.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1984; anarchists; antifa; antifabio; antifaorigins; apologists; blackshirts; bullstalin; communismdeniers; communismkills; cornelwest; defendthebolsheviks; denialaintariver; dncbrownshirts; fakenews; feminists; homoactivists; homofascism; homosexualagenda; libsplaining; losers; markbray; militantleft; mobrules; neonazis; obamalegacy; orwelliannightmare; pravdameanstruth; revisionisthistory; stalinisttactics; wapo; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost; whitewashcommunism
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To: Hadean

According to Peter Beinart, Antifa activists “combat white supremacism not by trying to change government policy but through direct action. They try to publicly identify white supremacists and get them fired from their jobs and evicted from their apartments,” in addition to “disrupt(ing) white-supremacist rallies, including by force.”

According to National Public Radio, “People who speak for the Antifa movement acknowledge they sometimes carry clubs and sticks,” and their “approach is confrontational.”[26] CNN describes Antifa as “known for causing damage to property during protests.” Scott Crow, described by CNN as “a longtime Antifa organizer,” argues that destroying property is not a form of violence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States)


21 posted on 08/17/2017 6:47:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: blueunicorn6

Mmmmmm.....ANTIFA......

The other white meat.


22 posted on 08/17/2017 6:49:00 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Hadean
The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent.

Bullshit. They just can't help themselves ... Black Supremacists and Communists like the Washington comPost lie all the time, about everything.

23 posted on 08/17/2017 6:49:09 PM PDT by NorthMountain (The Democrats ... have lost their grip on reality -DJT)
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To: Hadean

Antifa are the they are the same as the conmmnist, socialist, fascists. They try to tear down societies.


24 posted on 08/17/2017 6:49:26 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Hadean

Mark Bray completed his PhD in Modern European and Women's and Gender History at Rutgers University in 2016...he will begin work on his next project which explores the cultures of violence and street resistance that emerge in the social movements of postwar Western Europe and their impact on conceptions of leftist masculinity in the context of the emergence of competing conceptions of feminism.

25 posted on 08/17/2017 6:49:38 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: Hadean

“and if it weren’t for those brave Taliban and Mujahideen, we would’ve been crushed by the Soviets”
two wrongs don’t make a right. nothing wrong with Trump pointing out common sense.


26 posted on 08/17/2017 6:50:06 PM PDT by BostonNeocon
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To: RC one
The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent...rrriiiggghttttt........
27 posted on 08/17/2017 6:50:31 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: Hadean

Militant Leftists who deny the 100,000,000 dead from godless Communism.

Screw all Communists AND Nazis.

The pinko press is disgusting in their butt kissing for Communism.


28 posted on 08/17/2017 6:50:37 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
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To: DoodleBob

ANTIFA=ISIS


29 posted on 08/17/2017 6:52:12 PM PDT by CMailBag
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To: Hadean

Antifa and BLM are the most violent groups in America. It is time to list them as terrorists.


30 posted on 08/17/2017 6:53:15 PM PDT by bray (Pray for President Trump)
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To: Hadean

How dare Trump condemn ALL “hate bigotry and violence” rather than just some.

CNN, WaPo, etc can not tolerate condemnation of all the groups involved. They endorse “hate bigotry and violence”.


31 posted on 08/17/2017 6:53:19 PM PDT by Ray76 (Republicans are a Democrat party front group.)
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To: Hadean

This penny-ante professor wrote a book on so-called Antifa (and another one defending Occupy Wall Street) and is seeking to make a buck over the corpses of people like Heather Heyer. Truly vile.


32 posted on 08/17/2017 6:55:17 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Hadean

I don’t recall him comparing them. I do recall him saying that both sides were responsible for all the violence on Saturday. I don’t think that’s comparing them.


33 posted on 08/17/2017 6:55:24 PM PDT by hawkaw
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To: Skywise

“Instead, they put forth an ethically consistent, historically informed argument for fighting Nazis before it’s too late.”

After we defeated the Nazis in Germany, the Communists took over Eastern Europe.

Poland hates them both.

Global Communists are murderous thugs. Black or Brownshirt makes no difference to them, they love their violence and powertrips.


34 posted on 08/17/2017 6:57:21 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
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To: A_Former_Democrat

Whoever funds their violence could be up for RICO charges and lose all of their wealth for sponsoring racketeering.

The Klan was defunded by RICO.


35 posted on 08/17/2017 6:58:35 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
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To: Hadean

My new tagline: Antifa is full of Bolshevik.

Trying to celebrate the centennial of the ultimately failed Russian “revolution”.


36 posted on 08/17/2017 6:59:07 PM PDT by lightman (Antifa is full of Bolshevik.)
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To: a fool in paradise
Whoever funds their violence could be up for RICO charges and lose all of their wealth for sponsoring racketeering.

Now if that happened to Soros that would be true redistribution of wealth. Not the sort Antifa has in mind, however...

37 posted on 08/17/2017 7:00:38 PM PDT by lightman (Antifa is full of Bolshevik.)
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To: Skywise
Who hired Crowds on Demand? Did Jason Kessler hire them?

Did they play the KKK role? The Antifa role? Both?


https://charlotte.craigslist.org/tfr/d/actors-and-photographers/6253305119.html

38 posted on 08/17/2017 7:02:02 PM PDT by Ray76 (Republicans are a Democrat party front group.)
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To: Hadean
The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists.

Try and sell that line of BS to resicents and shop owners in Berkley and Portland.

Excerpt from the Daily Caller....Liberals on Twitter, such as former Hillary Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon and CNN host Chris Cuomo, decided to go one step further and compare antifa to the brave Americans who stormed Normandy on D-Day.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/17/republicans-embrace-group-that-wants-to-destroy-them/
39 posted on 08/17/2017 7:02:38 PM PDT by Cheerio (#44, The unknown President)
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To: Hadean

When was the last time Nazi Goobers tried to prevent others from speaking publicly?

Seems to me the REAL fascist are those working to control other Americans freedoms.


40 posted on 08/17/2017 7:03:00 PM PDT by The Toll
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