Trump and his goons are inflating the threat of Antifa, trying to create circumstances that will allow them to escalate, probably by invoking the Insurrection Act, which would give him the power to deploy the military to American streets. Very concerning stuff. As Krystal Ball has been saying recently, they are acting as if they don’t see any need to be accountable to voters in the future.
But denying reality won’t help. It’s astounding that serious people, like the historian Heather Cox Richardson, are still touting the “Antifa isn’t a thing” line. I don’t think they are trying to mislead people. I think they actually don’t know, because they are cocooned within a thick information bubble that doesn’t even permit the possibility that the Left could be responsible for violence.
But at this point, more than eight years after Trump first took office, there’s been overwhelming evidence of Antifa lawlessness. Come on. Get real. Of course Antifa is a thing!
- Who was in the vanguard of over 100 straight nights of civil disturbance in Portland in the summer of 2020?
- Who hurled frozen water bottles, cans and other projectiles and shot fireworks at police night after night?
- Who shone high-powered lasers into the eyes of police officers, causing at least temporary and likely permanent retinal damage to several?
- Who engaged in a premeditated, strategically planned assault on police at the Columbus statue in Grant Park in Chicago, hurling frozen water bottles & cans, PVC pipes and flash-bang fireworks, sending dozens of officers to the hospital? (See this 24-second video and this 1-minute, 43-second video.)
- Who is “The Antifa Handbook”, by Mark Bray, written about?
- What kind of group is Rose City Antifa? Or Antifa DFW? Or NYC Antifa? Or Atlanta Antifascists? Or dozens of other local groups?
The above list only begins to scratch the surface of Antifa shenanigans that have gone on in the last decade or so, since Trump first won the presidency. It’s all very well documented, but not by the mainstream media, who appear to be in some sort of denial. Or perhaps they are too frightened to cover the story. They have reason to be — Antifa is hostile to journalists, as Tim Pool reported in 2018. As Jake Tapper publicly recognized in the same year. As Taylor Lorenz found out with a punch to the head in 2017. As Andy Ngo experienced through repeated assaults, including one that caused a brain hemorrhage. (See also this archived link.)
Of course, Antifa would love to be thought of as something that the vast majority of people identify with, opposing fascism. Rhetorically, that’s very helpful. (Imagine you started a group called The Anti-Bad Guys, and proceeded to condemn everyone who opposes you by saying their opposition means they support Badness.)
It’s not just opposition to fascism. There’s a line being crossed here, which marks a useful distinction: these groups are engaging in political violence — something most Americans don’t agree with, and which is a genuine problem.
For the record, I don’t think we need the military to deal with Antifa, we just need good law enforcement. Including district attorneys who don’t play “catch and release”.
If Jimmy Kimmel says, “There’s no antifa”, I don’t really care — he’s a buffoon. But the fact that he is joined in this belief by people who seemingly should know better is an alarming sign of how badly polarization has distorted our public discourse.
If progressives like Heather Cox Richardson want to see Democrats perform better with independents, including some Trump voters, they would do well to start by acknowledging reality. There should be no need to distort the facts to oppose the reckless, authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.
