Exhibit A:
Seriously, this tweet deserves a rant.
Let's lay out some facts here.
1. "Antifa" is the abbreviation of anti-fascist. Ever hear of Hitler? Mussolini? Franco? They were fascists. They believed that some people were superior to others based on ethnicity, skin colour, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation...
Specifically, they believed they were superior. The Master Race.
This automatically meant everyone who was not like them was inferior. So inferior that sometimes they called them vermin or worse. Sometimes they ordered them rounded up and locked in cages. Sometimes they ordered them to be exterminated.
Fascists are bad. Evil. The worst of human ideology and inclination.
To be anti-fascist should be every human being's default position. We should all be "antifa". Except some are not.
2. There are people around who believe, as the fascists did, that they are superior and those not like them are inferior. They fear that those people who they see as inferior will become the ruling majority. They fear that this new ruling class will treat them the way white people have treated others for centuries. They, at some level, recognise that they and their kind have been brutal, inhumane, cruel, even monstrous, and now they fear that this will be their fate, should they allow people not like them to have rights, citizenship, power.
They also fear the people who do not think like them, even if they look like them. They set out to vilify those people in the public consciousness. Using right-wing media they built a narrative about this "antifa" being this dark, mysterious, shadowy threat to regular people living their regular lives. Unfortunately, main stream media has picked up the terminology and the vibe from these far-right white supremacist media sites and made it mainstream. So much so that usually rational people who are progressive thinkers see Antifa as something like terrorists.
3. "Antifa" as an organization simply does not exist. They are not an organised group in the sense that the FLQ was an organised group, or the IRA was an organised group, or the SLA was an organiseed group. They are not an organised group like the _____ Proud are organised. Or the 3 percenters are organised. Or the Yellow Vesters are organised. They aren't even as organised as the civil rights movement was organised. Small groups in specific areas organise to go out into the streets and show up to show planned white supremacist marches that there are people who don't agree. Often much of this "organisation" is in the form of facebook events and tweets just letting people know what is happening and inviting them out to stand in solidarity.
Because that's what needs to happen. When people march in the street in support of hatred, people need to step up and say, No. I disagree with this. If you ignore it, the white supremacists and the misogynists and the xenophobes think everyone agrees with them. Silence is agreement. Silence is complicit.
So when a white supremacist (fascist) rally is announced, people in the area co-ordinate to present an opposing view.
If things get violent, it is those who do not believe in racial hatred defending themselves against the attacks of those who do.
Yes, in every group there are some hot-heads. Young men get inspired and passionate about issues like this and many young men, even on the side opposing hatred and violence, haven't yet learned that peaceful resistance is the honourable way to deal with disagreements. Some fascists have been punched, or had drinks thrown at them.
On the other hand, fascists/white supremacists have killed people. Most recently in a shopping centre in El Paso, Texas. But over the past few years, these people have gunned innocent people down in churches, schools, night clubs, mosques, on the street, on public transit, in theatres, in shopping malls... And not just in the US. But mostly in the US.
3. Antifascists (Antifa) were the soldiers from Canada and the US and Britain and Australia and New Zealand and a host of other countries who went to war and fought and many died to prevent Hitler (a fascist) from taking over the world. Your grandpa or great uncle or second cousin... any member of your family who fought with the allies against Hitler, and all the women, the grandmas and aunties who worked for the war effort as nurses, wrens, in munitions factories, cracking codes, calculating formulas, or sewing clothing and knitting socks and keeping the home fires burning... they were, literally, antifa.
The guy who wrote this tweet seems to be suggesting someone go out and gun down elderly veterans and/or their widows. What is wrong with people?
4. Kent State University was the scene of a terrible massacre on May 4, 1970. The Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the US bombing of neutral Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Clearly, automatic weapons have increased their deadliness since then.
The Twitter poster above is advocating US military forces gunning down people who do not agree with white supremacy and fascism.
Again I ask, what the holy hell is wrong with some people?
5. The effectiveness of the far-right sites' campaign to vilify those who do not agree with white nationalism, bigotry, racism, misogyny, and, yes, fascism, is clear. Aided and abetted by main stream media, and not just Fox News, or American news sites, but also Canadian media, including the CBC, is evident. The term "antifa" has become associated with an evil organisation. To recap, Antifa is an abbreviation of anti-fascist. This should be every thinking human's default position. Antifa is not an organization. It is a moral imperative. The real threat is not those who value all lives and want to see peace, justice, harmony, and equal rights in the world. The real threat is the organisations that seek to impose a race/gender/sexual orientation hierarchy with straight white males at the top. These are the people who go on shooting rampages. These are the terrorists of modern society.
In conclusion, I call on you to call out people who are confused about what antifa is, and educate them, as gently as you can. I call on you to call out people who are racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, and full of hatred, and warn others about them. Opposing these things is a moral imperative. 1984 was not meant to be a how-to guide. We do not want the future to be a boot stamping on a human face...forever.
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