A recently released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) document titled “Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide”* links common protest symbols to “terrorism” — another marker in a common theme of conflating militant protest for social justice with deadly terrorist violence within the United States. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Brennan Center have raised warnings about such documents, citing inadequate protections for people’s constitutional rights.
But confronting fascists is good optics for them. They want to be able to point to shit like that to show how oPpReSsEd they are for their oPiNIoNs. It’s fuel. Ignore the marches. A news article covering a bunny of dudes waving nazi flags and nobody giving a shit is infinitely optically better than a brawl between nazis and antifa.
Absolutely not.
Anyone who believes that understands nothing about fascism at all. The pretense of “unopposable strength” is literally the only reason they will show themselves in public - if you don’t oppose it forcefully they win by default.
The media will happily ignore fascism. After all, the rich media bosses know who it is that will protect their precious private property for them, just like all the rich people do… that is why they fund fascists - there is no such thing as “grassroots fascism”. The fact that antifa’s resistance meant they couldn’t is literally one of the reasons the US’s secret police is now seeing antifa as a threat to the status quo.
Ignoring fascism is no different than ignoring climate change - doing so doesn’t make it go away.
What do you think was more optically advantageous for the left, a bunch of patriot front idiots getting arrested just for marching, or antifa and the proud boys brawling?
We’re not at the point of civil war. Optics are still more important than punching them.
Actually, portraying your enemy as both strong and weak is crucial to fascism. To nazis, the jews were simultaneously subhuman and also in control of the world. To the alt right, the left is simultaneously soy boy beta cucks and nazi punching radicals. If you remove yourself from their narrative, it fails apart. And instead of brave defenders of western culture under attack from crazy leftist extremists, they simply become weird motherfuckers waving nazi flags in (current year).
I’m not gonna say don’t punch nazis, but don’t do it in an organized fashion at a rally where they hope to provoke a reaction.
Showing the fascists - and their spineless “centrist” allies - that they will face real opposition in the streets. When the fash start marching, that is the only optics that matter.
Arrested by whom? Their KKK and neo-nazi allies you optimistically call “police”?
You don’t have to believe me, Clyde… you can hear it straight from a neo-nazi, too.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/11/1104405804/patriot-front-white-supremacist-arrested-near-idaho-pride
Yes.
Sooo… you’re just going to conveniently ignore this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And, surprise, surprise, this.
At this point I have to ask… are you sure you’re not a bit sympathetic to fascism yourself?
Yes, I know, that’s my point. In a clash between fash and antifa, we know what police are going to do. If nobody engages with them and their behavior becomes such that the police themselves actually have to arrest them, that’s amazing.
We’ll continue this conversation when you come back to the real world, okay?
Sure, just “ignore” it, conveniently forgetting they’re very much embedded in mainstream politics now and starting culture war campaigns, banning books, and actively attempting to dismantle democracy.
Fascism in the US is already here.