To The Atlantic, Media and Others Who Get Antifa Twisted [View all]

[ancianita]

Last edited Wed Aug 30, 2017, 04:52 PM - Edit history (1)

My bullshit detector went off when I finished September's Atlantic article, " The Rise of the Violent Left." It's a twisted read, not a good read, so I'm posting it here instead of in Editorials & Other Articles. I also didn't want to link to a paywall, having paid for the mag at the local bookstore.

Peter Beinart's shallow perusal of American anti-fascism history and its description of current Left-Right arguments come up with this conclusion: Hey, Antifa? Be sure to not fight monsters lest you become a monster. Okay. Great.

On to the point of my title above.

To all the 'high roaders' who say "They both do it!" -- read your history. You can't argue with history. Right now, plenty of lazy-ass media pander to this idea. Especially The Atlantic.(Sept. 2017)


Todays's antifa has its roots in the antifascist movements in Europe almost 100 years ago.

A. German anti-fascists:

1. The Edelweiss Pirates — sabotaging railways, aiding Jews
fleeing the Nazis — sent to camps or prisons.

2. The Swing Kids — pro-American culture that nazis detested — after 1941, nazis sent them to concentration camps.

3.Johan Elser — part of select group of men who tried to assassinate the dictator alone.
4. The European Union, not today’s EU — leaflets to allied forces — killed.

5. The White Rose — pamphlets against nazis popular until a university janitor ratted them — killed.

6. Solf Circle, begun by Johanna Solf — intellectuals against nazism met to aid, hide and help Jews escape — arrested, tried, executed.

7. German Catholic priests — fought against, and got Hitler to give up his T4 “euthanasia program.”

8. Rosenstrasse Circle — women who marched in protest each night in front of the guards against their Jewish husbands’ deportations until -- Hitler released them, even those ‘deported’ to Auschwitz.

9. Kreisau Circle — rich resisters who passed info to allies, othe resistance groups, some participated in failed assassination — executed.

10. Red Orchestra — soviet and german espionage programs, specifically the Harro Schuze-Boysen Harnack group founded by a Luftwaffe officer; gathered intel, helped those hunted by nazis, incited civil disobedience -- arrested, executed.

(Notice that more "dissidents" have been executed in fascist authoritarian Germany than in democratic US.)


B. Spanish and Italian anti-fascists:

Oriani Fallaci, Antonio Gramsci, Arturo Toscanini, Pablo Picasso, among many others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Italian_anti-fascists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spanish_anti-fascists


C. American anti-fascists:

Gary Cooper, Dead Prez, Morris Dees, Marlene Dietrich, Ernest Hemingway, Barry Goldwater, Woody Guthrie, Fred Hampton, Chris Hedges, Rage Against the Machine, Henry Rollins, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_anti-fascists

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Against all the facts of history, US media like The Atlantic promote the idea that the Left is violent, too. These media hope you don't read the history of antifa resistance to white supremacism and fascism.

In direct actions -- that MLK once claimed would lower their credibility before lazy thinkers -- the Left still tactically defend against US neoNazis who, under cover of "freedom of speech," try to drive out people of color's very right to even exist in the US.

I say to anyone who "reports:" you owe it to readers to not ignore the history of fascism worldwide.

Antifa critics may never claim that opponents of authoritarianism will be "unlikely allies" of Nazi racism and authoritarianism. The Left will never be authoritarian.

Stop getting the fascist/white supremacist/antifa conflict twisted.


The antifa Left holds to principles of SOLIDARITY, which is the very essence of socialism.

The antifa Left will never allow itself to be misrepresented as "equally" violent. The antifa Left brought the Nazis to Nuremburg. The antifa Left sought Nazis out in South America.

Today's antifa defend and help the downtrodden, whether they show up as the Cajun Navy, Red Cross, Berkeley defenders, or churches.

Hell, even Game of Thrones shows how knowledge of history helps solidarity protect The People's interests. From their brother Brandon's knowledge of history, the Stark sisters learn just who is the enemy within. AND they learn this lesson from their enemy: "we make our own justice. "

Americans won't take the easy way out, either. They'll be a credit to the values of the West.

Because Americans fucking READ HISTORY and value its lessons.