Violent anti-police Antifa or White Supremacists. Most of America is siding with one of them. On an individual basis, they would disagree. They are wrong.
Antifa defines their name to mean anti-fascist, but they use violence and intimidation in efforts to force others to say and do only as they deem allowable. They are, truly, more fascist than the neo-Nazis.
The left-leaning news site Vox covered this in a recent story, providing a short list of the most obvious recent Antifa violence. Their sources were other news sites often derided as Republicans as “fake news”… NBC and NPR. Vox absolutely soft-pedaled the Antifa attackers as “a few” among hundreds, but they reported on it. They didn’t report on arrests of Antifa members arranging to get weaponry…. but Politico did, back in 2017.
Domestic extremist groups ranging from white supremacists to their rival “antifa” anarchists are increasingly exploiting loose gun control laws to show up at emotionally charged rallies with assault rifles and other high-powered weapons, increasing the likelihood of an explosive clash in an American city,according to law enforcement officials.
Politico
The Politico story has it exactly correct. The core of Antifa are the same anarchists who denounced and threatened violence against Obama whenever the G-7 would meet. They are not mainstream Democrats any more than the White Supremacists are mainstream Republicans.
Antifa is nevertheless being actively cheered by their side. This is due to marketing. If Antifa was being defined for most Democrats as people who despised Obama and Clinton and favored the death of police, few would flock to the side of the leadership. Instead it is being portrayed as “anti-fascist”, standing up against the evil neo-Nazis.
For their part, the neo-Nazis have their own enablers, in the form of nationalists. They don’t agree with the racism, after all; they’re merely patriots, and they are fighting, not with the neo-Nazis, but reluctantly beside them against the fascist “Antifa”.
There are only a few actual white supremacists, the Republicans are told. The rest of the people present (i.e., anyone not performing a visible act of violence during the moments that the camera is running) are patriots… just like them. The Democrats are sold the same line.
Meanwhile, both sides are shown examples of the opposition in action. The fireworks and bottles being thrown at police, the racist language, the weaponry being brought to bear against journalists and bystanders as well as their stated enemies. That is an accurate description of either group.
Even when people refuse to fall in line, it doesn’t matter, because they are being defined by their associates… and those groups are being accepted by the respective parties.
This is why the political leadership does not aggressively distance themselves from these groups. They’re helpful. “Look at those terrible people, they must be stopped” is a great fundraising message, as well as a unifying rallying cry at a time when the respective leaderships are drifting far astray from their traditional positions.
This is a mechanism that benefits the anarchists and the neo-Nazis as well as the party leaders, but few others. The Antifa people promote activities like “punch a Nazi”, which they interpret broadly as “hit anyone in a Trump hat”. The White Supremacists drive over people and ambush churches. Neither side should be allowed to thrive, but that’s what is happening
