Antifas aren't our neighbors, they're rich white kids in college living in Berkeley who don't have to worry about having work so they run around acting fools.
that's not true at all - we are
everywhere (and definitely all over the USA) and the vast, vast majority of us are not rich college kids. antifascists are all ages, come from all backgrounds.
you probably don't see people standing around proclaiming that they are "antifa", because that would probably be dangerous in a lot of places. anonymity is for safety - because neo-nazis tend to kill people who oppose them.
people don't become "antifas" for fun - it's because we believe it is necessary. it's not a game or an act, in my experience, and we would all rather be spending time doing other things in our lives. but this is important.
obviously there are some dickhead antifascists out there, and i cannot - and will not - speak for all of them, because it is not an organisation, but a group of autonomous individuals who operate under a shared understanding, and anti-fascist solidarity.
but it's utterly
bizarre to me that people lap up the bullshit that has been propagated in the last year which paints anti-fascists as folk devils.
try to forget the MSM hype for a moment and ask yourself this - since when has fighting for a good cause (against fascism) been anathema to people in our respective countries?
unfortunately my grandparents are all dead now - but i wonder what they would have thought about people fighting fascists?
considering that defeating nazis was their whole generation's crowning achievement, i imagine they'd scoff at this idea that fascists and anti-fascists are somehow morally equivalent.
i find the false equivalence drawn between antifa and nazi/fascist groups to be offensive and childish.
"antifa" are good people stepping up to our communities from violent street gangs. it's funny how people are scared of "gangs", until they're white - then they don't get demonised. the blind spot for "white, home-grown" violent organisations is fascinating, really.
i don't blame people for thinking this way - the "otherness" of "anitifas" (and the massive amount of disinformation about who we are, what we do and why we do it) is a media construct. anti-fascists have been turned into a folk devil for disrupting the standard narrative as depicted in the news; if we're not acting on behalf of the state, or of the police - we
must be the bad guys, huh?
the police say so, so it's gotta be true!
the thing about nazis and other terrorists is that they kill and injure innocent people for the purpose of intimidation and hatred.
it's true of muslim terrorists, it was true of the IRA and it was true of timothy mcveigh - and it is true of neo-nazis, but their methods are (often) different - although they are not averse to bombings (nor were the KKK).
the so-called proud boys haven't killed anyone yet that i know of, but when you see them 5 men stomping on a single guy's head and or big beefy guys kicking women in the face, it seems inevitable that will happen.
these groups have started crashing all sorts of events to threaten and assault people -
even at candlelit vigils for muder victims.
these people talk about freedom of speech, but i have heard from many sources that any people engaging in any kind of vaguely left wing activity risk being physically attacked by these groups, with many organisations suggesting that activists should change the way they organise, that there is "safety in numbers" - and that they should consider carrying weapons.
to me that's a a clear sign that anti-fascist activism is
vital, if it's gotten that bad. the police are not protecting people, so they need to protect themselves.
when mobs of nazis/fascists/white supremacists are able to mobilise on the streets without resistance, what happens? people die.
it is rarely acknowledged that anti-fascist activism - most of which is
peaceful and non-violent - keeps those cowardly bastards too busy looking over their shoulders (and plotting ways to get us) to go out and lynch people, bash trans kids or indulge in other traditional neo-nazi past times.
there have been a lot of absurd things said about anti-fascists, especially in the US press, but the reality is that we
are boys and girls (and non-binary folks) next door.
the idea that we are all privileged rich kids is a fabrication. most of us are seasoned activists in a range of causes such as environmental and anti-war movements. not everyone agrees with direct action tactics, but we believe that confronting fascists directly and making it difficult for them to organise and mobilise is a form essential pro-active self defence.