Quote (Beowulf @ 2 Jul 2019 15:20)
I'm much more anti- masked mob than pro whoever this guy is or stands for
groups that attack one person are almost always in the wrong in my view
Uhuh... how about groups that defend themselves when attacked by several people? Should they hang back if they outnumber their aggressors?
And what about the kid that was hanging back from the actual violence that your 'de-escalator' grabbed from behind?
I'm not saying you're pro Patriot Prayer. I know you better than to think you'd be supporting the far-right. You're a left-leaning liberal from what I've seen. What seems more likely to me is that the narrative around antifa being masked thugs who attack innocent people is incredibly pervasive and it's easy to be swayed by it.
Let me give you a couple of things to think on though. With regards to the masks - antifa are notorious for not trusting the police. This comes from a long history of police protecting and supporting far right groups that goes back to dresden and cable street. Often the police will support and escort fascists (not an exaggeration - cable street and dresden were both events where antifascists opposed self-confessed fascists) through blockades put up by counter demonstrators who don't want fascists marching through their neighbourhoods. As I said earlier - the masks are to protect from prosecution. Because the police are often on the side of fascists and like to target the antifascists for their direct actions as evidenced recently by the police helicopter feed just before Heather Heyer was killed that was shown in court. Consider this event specifically - I have mentioned that Portland police have been caught supporting, passing information to and letting off members of Patriot Prayer.
Why wouldn't they want to protect their identities when they have very good reason to believe the police are on the side of the people they are there to protest against and that those people will assault them as they have declared they want to do?
Secondly - and this may be tough to believe - but most antifa people I know, myself included, are against violence unless they are directly physically attacked or they have to defend someone else who is being attacked. You don;t have to take it from me. I wasn't going to share this as it is material I'm going to use for a youtube video in future but here is a video of the talk I had with Daryle Lamont Jenkins. You can google him if you want but he is a dyed in the wool antifascist with a long history of attending these events and was at charlottesville.
This interview is being held in a discord channel full of antifascists - he has no media to play up to. Listen to what he has to say at 18.05 when I ask him if there are 'any groups other than white supremacists that he thinks political violence is justified against and if he thinks political violence is justified at all' -
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This post was edited by TransTankie on Jul 2 2019 09:56am