Antifa’s Aim

Antifa is short for antifa people. Different “members” have different views, as is typical of people in groups. Dissecting their labels is likely to lose us in what are details. We need to know now what antifa stands for, even if our information is incomplete and still developing. We cannot wait around for antifa to define itself further and become even more violent.

Antifa people stand for “action” or “direct action”. These terms in this context mean beating up people, starting fires, inciting riots, destroying property, encouraging looting, attacking police with all sorts of objects and excrement, ganging up on individuals, etc. They come armed to the streets, armed with weapons of all sorts in order to inflict bodily harm whenever they feel like it or get themselves aroused to do it. They do not believe in free speech. They routinely try to suppress the speech of those whom they label as enemies.

This philosophy sadly means killing policemen who are trying to restore order. There have been shootings of police overnight in Las Vegas and St. Louis. We do not know who did them. We do not know if they belong to antifa or some other group or acted alone. But we know that the philosophy of violence and taking law into one’s own hands is at work.

Sum this up by regarding antifa as VIOLENT. Anyone who condones this or sympathizes with this is totally WRONG. We can have no society if such violence, instigated by whoever pleases, is allowed. It will GROW if appeased. If private groups arm themselves and attack each other, making themselves judge, jury and executioners, that terminates the peace. That terminates rule by law. That terminates a society that’s safe and building up its wealth.

And there are antifa-sympathizers sitting in comfortable chairs in clean offices and homes. There are politicians and entertainment figures who sympathize and support antifa’s activities. Their motivations, rationales and justifications make absolutely no difference in reaching the conclusion that any such support is WRONG. Antifa is BAD. It does BAD things. It will only do worse things if allowed to and supported.

To avoid seeming in the wrong, and to justify their violence, antifa hides under other banners of goals like anti-racism, equality and LGBTQ rights. Antifa’s methods are, however, a long, long way from nonviolent resistance. Antifa stands for the very opposite of peaceful methods of protest, communication, pressure and noncooperation.

One e-mail came in yesterday that reads

“You are absolutely right [about antifa]. Having lived and worked in several countries where violent terrorist groups operated, I can tell you that they all originated as Antifa-like organizations, provoking violence in the streets before they went full terrorist. An iron hand used early would have prevented much future death and destruction. Every last one should be identified and jailed for a long, long time.”

Left unchecked, unpunished, and uncowed, antifa will ramp up its levels of violence and graduate to throwing bombs, arson, assassinations, etc.

In the minds of antifa people, violent means justify their goal. They are after something. What is it? They want new systems of society and government that are extreme leftist (communism, anarchist communist, socialist, etc.). They are anti-capitalist, which means anti-free enterprise, anti-free markets, and anti-private property.

When they say fascism, they mean the existing system of government, laws, property, and business enterprises. They mean society as a whole. For example, they’ll claim the country is fascist because they hold it to be racist, and the German fascists were racist. It’s like saying John is gay. The German fascists were gay. Therefore John is a fascist.

Antifa finds a convenient target in white supremacy groups. Being against them generates sympathy for antifa being on the side of right. However, this is a ploy because white supremacists are but a tiny, tiny sliver of Americans. Antifa is after much, much bigger game.

Antifa is revolutionary. Antifa looks to replace the current order with left-wing substitutes, including communism and various other socialist governments. Some of them are probably nihilists, in it for the destruction. Anarchy is a stepping-stone or means, not their final objective. It’s the kind of anarchy that involves bomb-throwing at some point and seeks to undermine the current systems altogether. Anarchy paves the way for revolution.

Calling antifa by any one label, like anarchists, communists, extreme leftists, socialists, etc. will not be completely true of all people in it. Each label will capture a certain element. Thinking of it as anti-fascist is misleading and inaccurate for two reasons. One is that antifa uses fascist means, such as ganging up on its chosen opponents, taking to street brawls, the use of extreme violence, and suppressing speech. The other is that it uses the term fascist to mean our existing society and government.

Antifa is a collection of people who use violent means to foster anarchy and revolution, the goal being to replace existing society and government by leftist systems that are Marxist, communist, and socialist.

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10:27 am on June 2, 2020