Using violence to coerce people is fascism. How a violent activist group can claim to be anti-fascist is beyond me. They have become the thing they claim to hate.
It is not necessarily fascism just because they use violence. They view it as Nazis work towards a a violent society where certain minorities will be oppressed or even killed. So using violence to stop that is warranted just like it is for example warranted for the state to use violence to capture and hold a person that is preparing a terrorist attack.
I disagree of course as even though I really dislike Nazis political violence is something that is really dangerous for our democracy. For example in in town in Sweden one Antifa group jumped and beat up a libertarian politician just because he was seen as promoting politics that was hostile towards workers. Generally that is not something Antifa does but when you start using political violence is easy to use those methods more and more. Or inspire other groups that they should do it as well.
Beating up and suppressing anyone you don't agree with, which is exactly what Antifa members have been doing in the last 2 years at many of their 'protests', is itself fascism.
I don't like this, but violence is a proven remedy against fascism, possibly the best one. Engaging them in good faith debate in the marketplace of ideas isn't.
IIRC antifa from the start is a violent group. Use whatever means necessary to stop fascism. What means are necessary and what is fascism is left as an exercise for a reader.
So what if they are violent? Fascism is violent. They're not going to ask people to just eff off, they're going to force them, with violence. Seems to me like what we have here is the same class war we have all over the world. If you're not on the side of the oppressed and the provoked, you're on the side of the oppressor and provocateur.
Many hard left movements (and sometimes even soft left groups) have used both mass violence and thuggish targeted violence to promote their agendas and intimidate rivals. The practice has a long, long history that predates even the soviet union and the Bolsheviks (who were extremely fond of vicious violence to edge their way into power). Claiming that violence for the sake of forcing one's beliefs on others is a uniquely fascist habit is historically ignorant or just biased and dishonest.
Exactly. Anti-fascism is not fascism. Fascism is evil and must be suppressed at any cost if we want to live in a peaceful society. Only a fascist would believe otherwise.
You mean like the guy who murdered an opposing protestor in cold blood? Oh wait, that was a self-proclaimed antifacist. What's more fascist than using violence to force your belief on others?
This doesn't surprise me at all. Fascists have been acting as agents provocateur for years, infiltrating non-violent leftist demonstrations and turning them violent to justify police violence against unarmed protesters.
Politically motivated violence is not synonymous with fascism, it's an actual political movement/"philosophy" with hallmarks and such. Plenty of violence happens in the world, both in response to speech and not, without being 'fascism'.
They don't oppose fascism. Antifa is literally fascism and differs only in its mandate of which speech is allowed and which is not. Indeed the mechanism which you see in all totalitarian movement, from Nazis to ISIS. It's completely at odds with democracy and free speech.
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