“Suppose I say the sentence ‘Today is Wednesday’ and I say it all the time every day even when it isn’t Wednesday, and I even todays Wednesday say todays Wednesday at times when it’s completely in-todaysWednesday-appropriate.
If you’re very clever you might start to suspect I’m not really talking about the days of the week, those are the words I’m using but I’m actually doing something else with them, mainly I’m taking the piss out of you while you try to explain the days of the week.
Well a lot of fascist speech works in similar ways, the myths at the core of fascism the bad statistics, the made up history, the really off the wall stuff. It really doesn’t matter to a committed fascist how many times you sit down and debunk that stuff they keep todays Wednesday saying todays Wednesday. Thats because its not so much about the content but the act of saying it, and thats how we spot propaganda.
The job of propaganda isn’t necessarily to convince anyone, propaganda is a recruitment tool, it gathers and retains the people who understand the true message and are willing to repeat it. It doesn’t really matter to a committed white nationalist how many times you sit down and debunk the ridiculous white nationalist conspiracy that the world is secretly being taken over by Jewish people. Because when they’re saying that they aren’t really saying its true, what they’re saying is they want to persecute Jewish people.
And their audience are all running around trying to explain the days of the week saying “Come on our talk show and explain your weird theory about the days of the week” and “Bring this to the free market of ideas so we can debunk it”. Whilst some of their audiance are sitting there going “Ooooh, I get it… todays Wednesday”.
The liberal love of free speech is a great thing but it assumes that everybody is coming to the table in good faith and are willing to play the game, which fascists evidently aren’t. Thats why it is worth countering fascist arguments to try and reach potential recruits before they do. But anti-fascists will try to deny fascists platforms. Because when we interview fascists or debate fascists they’re not really there for us, they’re there for our audience. While we’re up there talking about the days of the week theres a guy at the back of the lecture theatre handing out pamphlets about the Wednesday question.”
Anonymous asked: What is antifa fighting for? Ive seen videos where you all mostly appear to just be bullies. But i dont believe the videos as im sure they are editing based on someone else's agenda. I just thought I would go to the source so i can make an informed decision.
Antifa’s fight is best summed up by the motto “respect existence or expect resistance.” We are fighting for the right of people to live their lives peaceably and without threat of discrimination, dehumanization, vilification, scapegoating, deportation, abuse, violence, enslavement, or genocide because of their ethnicity, race, religion, language, gender or sexual orientation, migrant status, or disability.
You’re correct that the videos you’re seeing are carefully edited to make antifa look like the aggressors. There’s a clear pattern going on that runs like this:
a) fascists/far right bigots announce a public event to incite violence against their perceived enemies, recruit more followers, and gain publicity.
c) the day comes and the people in the community they’ve chosen for their event stand with anti-fascists in opposition to them.
d) some of the more tech-savvy fascists deliberately try to provoke counterprotestors by threatening them, harassing them, endangering them, or assaulting them.
e) the counterprotestors use every means imaginable to stop this without resorting to physical force. When none of it is effective & they resort to physical force, the fascists record it, then post edited videos showing only the reaction to their harassment & assaults, then immediately start begging online for money via crowdfunders etc.
b) From that same event, the “innocent elderly gentleman” who was “assaulted with a crowbar” by antifa is well known local nazi John Blum, who came to the event with a collapsable police baton which he was threatening antifa with for several minutes.
d) Likewise the “antifa attacked an innocent father and his 5-year-old daughter.” That was Johnny “shitty 300 cosplayer” Turano and his adult daughter Bianca, who travel the west coast harassing leftist protestors like they did this past Saturday, showing up at an entirely peaceful counterprotest and harassing people for the better part of an hour. Johnny repeatedly tried to smash people in the face with a metal shield before the crowd made them run away by dousing them with water and pushing them. Here’s a particularly creepy video of the two of them getting tattoos, which we’re pretty sure a five-year-old wouldn’t be allowed to do. Here’s another video of them calling an actual five-year-old girl a terrorist.
You have to ask yourself why people would be going to these lengths to make anti-fascists look bad. Maybe it’s because they see antifa as a threat to their political goals + they also see an opportunity to make bank off of gullible conservatives by revving up the ol’ right wing outrage machine.
