On Monday, just one day after the Republican Party staged a Horst Wessel-style memorial for Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Arizona, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating “antifa” a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The order claims that antifa is a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that uses “illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide.”
Antifa, as even FBI Director Christopher Wray was forced to admit in a September 2020 congressional hearing, is not an organization but a broad current of opposition to fascism. “Antifa is an ideology, not an organization,” said Wray, who also testified that the bureau had no data showing any lethal violence committed by the organization.
Since antifa as a formal organization does not exist, Trump’s executive order amounts to a blanket authorization to brand political dissent and opposition to his fascist regime as “terrorism.”
He signed an executive order making the entire US army oppose him.
Ima stay outa this now.
Looks like we’re all terrorists.
Everyone arm up.
CPAC is finally correct now!
I armed up back in 2018. Not sure why anyone else wouldn’t have by now. Maybe just extreme naivete.
Suicidal tendencies, mostly. As much as I wish I could buy a gun, I’d probably be most likely to turn it towards myself.
But there are so many billionaires just loitering about.
I think I’ve figured out Trump’s Reichstag moment.
It’ll be the White House burning down, because of something going wrong with the ballroom construction. Then he’ll get to move the presidential residence to Mar-A-Lardo like he’s always wanted, and charge the American taxpayers for renovations and rent forever.
Kirk was the reichstag fire
I normally don’t want hurricanes to hit Florida since I live there but that scenario would change my mind.
The far right which has taken over ICE and the Federal government under Trump is terrorizing many, many people in this country. JD Vance, Noem, and Trump know it (the cruelty is the point) and yet all cast any criticism of this fact as “terrorist rhetoric.” That kind of table-turning projection is foundational in the authoritarian playbook.
But what I don’t understand is - why does the American public discourse seem to tolerate all these tactics?why does the American public discourse seem to tolerate all these tactics?
Because most people aren’t very smart and will only care about something once it directly affects them, which is too late.
Which is why this is probably going to get a whole lot worse and everyone that is smart should be preparing themselves for that.
The right has complete control of the media outrage apparatus.
Because allowing these tactics let’s them “hurt the people he needs to be hurting.” They’re authoritarian themselves.
Does this mean that Trump and his followers are fascists?
Oops, guess I’m a terrorist now.
I am a terrorist now I guess.
If you’re a terrorist to a fascist regime, you’re one of the good guys.
The next big protest is going to be interesting for sure…
October 18th.
We need everyone that can walk & hold a sign to turn out.
… in case you weren’t sure what he stands for
I prefer the term freedom fighter.
It’s gonna be like nailing jelly to a wall.
Come on Trump, you can do better. Here in The Netherlands the government has signed a motion banning antifa already last week! Try to keep up, will ya? /s
It’s so unfortunate that journalism is dead, otherwise we could’ve had some interesting discussions on this topic. For instance, I would like really like to know what would happen if a WWII veteran would speak out against fascism. Will we (The Netherlands or in this case the US) lock that person up?
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Lol “designating “antifa” a “domestic terrorist organization.”
It’s the same game Bush played with The War on Terror or Reagan with the War on Drugs. Write orders so vague and all-encompassing that virtually anyone could qualify based on a police officer or prosecutor having bad vibes.
Trump’s running on a very time tested playbook
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Holy shit you’re dumb.
Both the “war on drugs” and Trump’s Antifa move use intentionally wide nets so they can catch whatever they want and spin it however they want.
Now, the “war on drugs” is far enough in hindsight that we know it was a failure and we know it was a ploy by the Reagan admin to make it look like they were accomplishing something and gain support. What Trump is doing is the same, but far, far more dangerous.
You can’t be this stupid. I mean you can, and are, but goddamn.
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Different time, different subjects completely.
Same subjects - the poor, the marginalized, the minorities.
And “different time” is such a fucking cop out. It’s always a “different time”. What difference is that supposed to make? It’s the same policy.
This is just one more step in labeling anything opposed to the Trump administration as enemies of the state. If you don’t see that you are either ignorant or complicit. The fact that it’s so badly defined is why it makes the perfect boogeyman. They can attribute any characteristics they want to “Antifa” and then anyone who espouses those characteristics is under suspicion of being a terrorist.
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We should still get our facts straight and not rely on hyperbole, which just opens us up to being corrected and looking like idiots who don’t bother to verify what they spout.
If it really is as bad as you say, then we shouldn’t need to embellish it. Stick to the facts and let people form their own opinions.
spoiler
It’s sad this needs to be spelled out for so many of you, but it just goes to show how few of you paid attention in social studies or had extremely poor teachers.
Look at this pseudo-intellectual telling us to educate ourselves while ignoring an extremely bright neon red flag that looks a whole hell of a lot like a common tactic used by fascist regimes to label anyone they want an enemy of the state.
How about you stop trying to educate us and educate yourself, champ.
Most of them react like you when faced with their incompetence.
Sorry bud. Everyone doesn’t get a gold star this time.
I have hated rage bait and click bait ny entire life. I know what you are saying. But this, no this is just truthful.
If there was an organization,sure. But since antifa does not exist, and just stands for “anti fashist” there is exactly no misunderstanding. It’s their psychosis bulging out of their pores and it’s very dangerous
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Did you know you can go to antifa.org for membership and a card?
Straight up, yall are delusional and can fuvk right off.
Ha ha ha ha, what a twat.
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Hey, respect to ya for owning it tho. No worries, I’ve had plenty of my own twat days too.
there’s no way this person isn’t trolling, right? right?
They are, unfortunately, very stupid. Also a troll though.
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dude, you lose the right to have opinions about any of this shit ever again. You were so confident in your ignorance. Sit down, shut up.
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Turn on your autocorrect, fascist. Fucking moron.
God I hope they come for you first.
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And im sure Trump is under the full impression that “antifa” is a group/organization of sorts, whether you or I believe it or not. So he’s basically canceling a non-existent group?
When this order gets interpreted and implemented, will they be reading Trump’s mind (ugh, sick thought) or will they be reading the order?
Trump is like King Tommen, happily banging the seal of the King on whatever mommy puts in front of him. Whether or not he has the faintest idea of what he is signing is entirely irrelevant. The people who wrote the order know what they want it to mean, and they won’t be interpreting it any other way. What Trump thinks is far less relevant than what Stephen Miller thinks.
What are you even talking about…? Seriously i didn’t understand that, it may be my fault.
Which part did you not understand?
I’ll come at it from another direction. The executive order is nonsense from a legal perspective for any number of reasons, but that’s assuming the Trump administration intends to follow the rule of law. I hope it’s pretty obvious by now that we can’t make that assumption.
Lets say you are an ideological enemy of Trump that the administration want’s to railroad. They use this executive order to prompt the FBI to start digging. The FBI isn’t going to push back and say that antifa isn’t an organization, and they will never have to prove such a thing in court. They still have to find something to charge you with though, but you are a model citizen with no criminal record, and you have never said anything online that could possibly be twisted to sound like a threat. So, you are safe, except…
Since you have been implicated as a domestic terrorist, the intelligence agencies get roped in. Independent of the FBI, these agencies are the top experts in the entire world at finding your secrets and even at fabricating pretty much any document or other piece of evidence they want. As a terrorist (yeah, they drop the “implicated” part pretty quickly) you are a risk to national security. Suddenly the FBI is getting tips that lead them to whatever they need to put you away for whatever crime is most useful.
This is exactly how fascist governments operate.
I mean, we think the same of you.
Found the tankie.
Found the idiot
Don’t you have boots to lick?
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Goddamn son. You need to pick up a fucking history book and get back to us.
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Guys. being against “antifa” doesn’t not equal being against “anti-fascist”. They’ve got yall spun around
Well, at least you’re accidentally correct about this one
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Just today Stephen Miller claimed that calling the Trump regime “authoritarian” was terrorism.
I don’t know what you are smoking but you should stop, it is damaging your brain.
Thanks for this sanity check.
I looked at the source and noticed, well, it wasn’t anything reputable that I recognized like AP. That usually means they have very little journalistic integrity and have no problem sensationalizing headlines to get clicks.
One can be anti fascist whilst not being a member of Antifa. Don’t forget people, these are the dumbest people in the world running this show.
Yeah but the more you read up on the Nazis the more you find out they were pretty dumb too. Still killed millions of people.
I think conflating Antifa with anyone they choose is exactly the objective.
Yup, it’s just a new method to be able to kidnap people off the streets. First it was “they were an immigrant” and then “they looked like an immigrant”. And now it has progressed to “they looked like a domestic enemy of the state”.
I am NOT a member!
I would NEVER be a member of any club that would have someone like ME as a member.
- Groucho Marx, 1959
True, but they have yet to utilize their new terrorist distinction on me, an anti-fascist, so I think the general layperson is safe atm
“They haven’t come for me yet, so we’re still safe” is not very good logic under a fascist regime.
You’re safe until you’re not, at which point, nobody will know because you’ve been disappeared.
So yes, we can hear from the people who we can still hear from. True equals true.
There are no ‘members’ of Antifa. There are only people that are anti-fascist.
Edit to add: The only people trying to make Antifa a thing are fascists trying to convince the dumbfuck masses that opposition to them is somehow a bad thing. And now they’re trying to make that a crime.
Weren’t the Portland riots committed by members of a group called “Antifa”? Also, apparently there are small sects that organize locally.
“Antifa has no official national leadership, though followers have organized themselves into small, local cells that sometimes coordinate with other movements, such as Black Lives Matter.”
"Some antifa adherents keep a very low profile, while other local groups venture to give themselves a more public profile with a name and a website. One of the oldest such groups appears to be Rose City Antifa, which says it was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2007. According to its website, its main focus is “any work that prevents fascist organizing, and when that is not possible, provides consequences to fascist organizers. This is supported by researching and tracking fascist organizations.”
SourceAs a Portlander:
No, yet again there are no organizations, just individuals committed to the same idea. This shit is spontaneous and if you actually knew anything about this city you would know why.
Just like black blocs are an idea and a tactic, not an organization there are no leaders in a bloc and no members, just participants.
Interesting. Thanks. Might be time for a rebrand.
No, “antifa” is, itself, the term for the position of being against fascism. There is no organization.
They also will not care as they’re just going to accuse their enemies of it regardless of how left they are. They know exactly what they are doing, and they’ve been doing it way faster than I expected.
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One can be anti fascist without being anti fascist? Are you on fucking crack M8?
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the antifas
Are the antifas in the room with you right now?
I feel like you’re still thinking ‘antifa’ is an organisation, when it’s simply being opposed to fascism. It’s a concept, not a movement, and it only appears to be a movement when fascism is on the rise, which tends to cause* antifa people to group together more to oppose it. There are some groups explicitly for doing antifa action, but if you’re against fascism, you are antifa by definition. Also ‘antifa’ action can be anything from denouncing Nazis online to protecting trans rights to protesting to any number of other things.
The right has tried to make ‘antifa’ into some sort of bogeyman for a decade, and we shouldn’t allow them to frame what it means.
It’s similar to liking video games. I’m a ‘gamer’ because I like to play games, but I don’t belong to any gamer groups, I don’t go to conventions, and I don’t compete in tournaments. Some people do those things, but I’m no less a gamer because I don’t.
Yes, I am antifa. Enough that I own this book (which I actually recommend everyone read who wants to resist fascism):
No it’s not, also in Europe antifa simply means anti-fascist.
Okay fedbot5000, you did good here but maybe reddit needs your FUD more.
I would argue there is no organization known as “antifa”. Certainly nothing with structure or presence like tpusa or the proud boys, ya know the organization that terrorized the seat of our nation 5 years ago…
One can be anti fascist whilst not being a member of Antifa.
Reread their comment, they know.
They knew about it because they implied in the second that that the first would pass in the current administration because they are that dumb. They know.
Sending gif trying to look smart while missing the obvious point is kinda embarrassing ngl.
You steel manning and imposing your own assumptions is kinda embarrassing (ngl). You don’t know their mind yet you insist on reading past their words. You just look like a dork who wants there to be more than there is to a thing.
How does one become a “member” of antifa?
Annoy Trump and he’ll declare you one.
Gotta get recruited by George Soros.
Attend the planning meetings of any anti-fascist group that uses ‘antifa’ in their name, of which there are many; in my experience the ‘membership’ is almost identical to the ‘membership’ of the local Anarchist Book Fair planning committee.
Or show up to an anti-fascist rally, even as a bystander, get arrested for nothing, and now your name is on a ‘known members’ list in some pig’s office :P
explain how so? consider that there is no way to “be” a member of a group that does not exist in that manner. being of the cohort of people who are antifascist is not the same as being a “member.” I suppose we are saying the same thing. :)
So, so dumb that I can fully imagine a scenario like this playing out amongst the orange knobhead and his staff on the daily
It’s crazy the amount of people that didn’t get your comment. You might want to clarify… XD
