Protesters or Antifa Anarchists: Who Brings the Hate?

by Phil Erwin

Saturday, August 26th, saw another round of black-clad, face-masked “protesters” policing the vicinity of UC Berkeley to protect that ultimate of American rights: The Freedom of Speech.

Oh, wait a minute… Those guys weren’t there to protect speech: They were there to prevent it. With clubs, pepper spray and… Well, with their own brand of hate speech. (Why else would all those video clips be more bluster, blather and beeeeeeeep!!! than actual conversation?)

That’s right – UC Berkeley, known since the 70’s as a bastion of Free Speech, has become the archetype in the alt-Left’s efforts to prevent any and all speech except their own, “by any means necessary” – a phrase drawn into the political arena by Malcolm X, one-time Black Supremacist. The phrase is now proudly quoted by Democrat politicians – including Hillary! – indicating either their ignorance of what it actually implies, or their tacit approval of violence as a political tool.

If I hadn’t known which city was hosting that crowd of anti-American rabble, I might have thought the video was from some European city. Europe has been suffering, and tacitly accepting, this form of “civil disobedience” for decades now, apparently too worried about being considered un-Hip (or “non-PC”) to enforce their own laws. Smashed windows, overturned cars, vehicles set on fire, and general mayhem orchestrated by club-wielding “protesters” wearing all-black and sporting “Guy Fawkes” masks has become commonplace over there. France, Belgium, Germany, Britain and other EU countries have all suffered their share of these idiotic melees.

But not here. Until recently. Until Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and now “Antifa”, a nom de guerre that embodies hypocrisy of the highest order. It’s short for “Anti-Facist,” and is attached to the most fascistic group of social misfits to sully the American political landscape since the arrival on our shores of Nazism in the 1930’s.

I pointed this out in my last column, working from the discussion of “fascism” found on Wikipedia. “Fascism” has historically been applied to central governments suppressing their population’s freedoms with police-state intimidation and violence. But the term derives from the idea of using crowd-power to overwhelm the individual. Here is the excerpted definition I used:

Fascism [is characterized by] forcible suppression of opposition… including supporting the legitimacy of political violence, as a core part of its politics. Fascism views violent action as a necessity in politics…

So crowd-force behaviors such as we’ve witnessed in Berkeley and Charlottesville are the modern-day equivalent of the facist behaviors of governments in the last century. The broader definition is clear, and the applicability abundantly obvious: Fascists squelch opposing political views and promote their own views using any means necessary, including violence.

“Antifa” shows up in black “uniforms,” carrying weapons (clubs, pepper spray, containers of urine and feces – no doubt with knives, brass knuckles and other weaponry tucked away.) Their intent, and the result, is the squelching of the speech and views of others while promoting their own political views. That is as fascistic as any behavior we’ve had in our country since – well, since the Klan had their cross-burning heyday.

Here is political observer and speechwriter Marc Thiessen discussing a Dartmouth professor’s new book on the Antifa movement on FOX’s The Story:

“… this is how he describes Antifa: ‘They are Marxist Leninist revolutionary Leftists who have no allegiance to Liberal democracy, and believe that physical violence is both ethically justifiable and strategically effective.’ [My emphasis] That makes them the equivalent of the neo-Nazis [who] commit violence in the name of a murderous ideology that killed 25 million people in the Twentieth Century. These people – Antifa – are neo-Communists who commit violence in the name of an ideology that killed 100 million people in the Twentieth Century. They are morally indistinguishable, and they need to be rejected by the Democratic Party, just as Republicans have rejected the neo-Nazis.”

And here is how Jonathan Turley, Constitutional Law professor at George Washington University, responds:

“What concerns me most about Antifa is that they’re built on this intolerance for free speech; they don’t believe that people have a right to speak freely, they believe that some people are “unworthy” of free speech because of their views. [My emphasis] And Professor Beret has gone into that in his book, with some apparent support for the notion that not all speech is equal. And that really challenges a basic premise of our country. Once you start to create this generation of speech-intolerant kids, the question is, where are we heading? Who will decide what views are unworthy, and what [views] are not? “

To those who were offended by “White Nationalists” holding a political rally in Charlottesville, and who are so convinced that only those racists were responsible for the violence: Why are you so blind to the explicit, obvious, visible intent of Antifa to promote, incite and participate in political violence for their own ends? If you consider neo-Nazis to be monsters because they embrace fascism, why don’t you likewise demonize and disavow the Antifa thugs?

What’s the difference between Right-wing Fascists and Left-wing Fascists? What makes one group’s monstrous behavior so horrifying to the Left, while the other group’s equivalently monstrous behavior seems so invisible to them?

Let me state this as clearly as I can: There is no form of Fascism, whether government-driven or crowd-driven, which is consonant with American ideals, with American politics, or with the American Constitution.

Antifa is not anti-Fascist. Antifa is anti-American.

Period.

And now that Her Royal Lowness, Nanci Pelosi, has been shamed into publicly denouncing Antifa, we will see a gradual, begrudging admission by Democrats that the methods, if not the goals, of Antifa are in fact unacceptable. Pelosi has signaled that it’s time to admit the Antifa Fascist jig is up. Politicians and the Liberal media will be reluctantly admitting the obvious: That the tactics of Antifa are inherently un-American, and have no place in the American political landscape.

But they will conveniently ignore (and hope that you forget) that they once, by their silence, both accepted and gave tacit approval to some of the most un-American crowd behaviors we’ve witnessed since the lynch mobs of the old West.

When the White Supremacist crew holds a parade with tiki torches, the Left and the mainstream Media (same thing) screams “violent Fascist scum!”

When Antifa actually behaved like violent Fascist scum, attacking peaceful demonstrators (and Yes, some were carrying torches – which weren’t hurting anything other than air molecules,) the Left and the mainstream Media (same thing) were extraordinarily unconcerned. Pelosi’s cave is a signal that the Left has run out their silent string, because the public is now recognizing the inherent hypocrisy.

But don’t expect Antifa to take the cue and disappear into the woodwork. Those guys don’t care what Liberals and Democrats think, any more than they care what the guys they’re clubbing like harp seals think.

Lessee, now… Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Antifa… Now they’re apparently morphing into the so-called “Black Bloc.” Democrats – you really should be more careful whom you choose as your de facto street champions.

Berkeley Political Review – MARCH 23, 2017

Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He would like to support some Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies (and is highly suspicious of Statistics.) That pretty much eliminates supporting most Democrats, and a bunch of Republicans to boot.

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