Fascism has many names and faces, disguises, and masks. White supremacists, alt-right, Nazis, racists, racialists, race realists, nationalists — they rebrand themselves when and where ever they can. They are nationalist, authoritarian, and require radical conformity and obedience to the Fatherland, Mother Russia, or … Q.
I will simply call them fascists.
Some people think capitalism and fascism are pretty much the same things. I don’t. Capitalism is an economic system and fascism is a governing philosophy. Capitalism is more comfortable with democracy and the rule of law but gets along okay under fascism. Think of capitalism as a big ole ho who will do anything for the money.
What Antifa Wants
Antifa is antifascist. I know the right-wing, and sometimes the press, label Antifa as fascist, but that’s just … a joke. C’mon, man.
In 2020, Antifa activists broke a few windows in California and punched somebody on camera a couple of times. They wear black masks.
Right-wingers and so-called liberal journalists, talk about “Antifa thugs, perpetrating violence and terrorism,” equating them with Islamists and, well, fascists.
It’s a journalistic “both sides-ism” that wore real thin in the Age of Trump.
If you point out that Antifa violence pales in comparison to fascist violence, people get pissed off and claim you are condoning violence with “what-about-ism.” It’s kind of a Fox News Foxtrot.
Focusing on Antifa's violence against cars and windows draws attention away from the trail of bloody bodies in the wake of fascists. According to its apologists, fascist violence is always committed by mentally ill lone wolves … or something.
Yeah, right.
Antifa's goals are simple: No more Jim Crow, no more lynchings, no more border walls. No more Muslim bans. No more Bergen-Belsen, no more Rohingya mass graves, no more dead Tutsis. Antifa wants the fascists to learn that all people everywhere have inherent worth and dignity. They want everyone to have a voice and to have some measure of control over their own lives. We refer to that condition as “freedom.” Antifa would love for fascists to change their minds and become better people. Former fascists can become friends or go somewhere and live rich and fulfilling lives.
Antifa wants the fascists to stop hurting and hating people. That’s the end game.
But the fascist endgame
They must have an enemy. If the enemy is shadowy and mysterious — or can be made to seem that way — all the better. If you get to know people you might stop hating them and then where would we be? Democracy might break out.
For fascists, identity is an easy, always handy, excuse. It does not matter that you are no more responsible for where or to whom you were born than they are. Fascists want the disfavored group to cease to exist.
There is nothing the disfavored group can do to stop being dangerous enemies. Cooperation, following “the law”, complying with orders — none of that makes a difference.
It wasn’t enough to round up the Jews and put them in camps. It wasn’t enough to drive the Rohingya out of Burma. It wasn’t enough to drive black people out of all public spaces.
Containment and/or exclusion aren’t enough. Only eradication could ever work and that’s never going to be possible. There will always be the ones you didn’t destroy. The enemy is out there lurking, working in secret.
For fascists, the only serious solution is the final solution. Everything else is foam on the waves.
Build a wall, separate but equal, the war on terror, and white homelands all boil down to the same thing: Fascists have a permanent enemy that can’t be changed or repaired. It can only be eradicated.
Antifa violence
So Antifa looks straight at the evil heart of fascism and not at the foam on top.
It’s not about a border wall — it was never about “Illegals” taking our jobs. The Trump administration tried to limit legal immigration. They even used flimsy excuses to detain citizens of the wrong color. Those are only steps along a road that ends in genocide.
Antifa wants to prevent it from going that far. They don’t see a punch in the face as a moral equivalent.
Neither do I.
An ounce of prevention
I’d rather keep arguing and talking and debating. Persuading. I’d rather we keep shaming these creeps by releasing photos and videos to the World Wide Web. I’d rather Antifa get fascists kicked off social media, get their websites taken down. De-platform whenever they can — Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter have nothing to add to the conversation that hasn’t been spewed out by fascists for hundreds of years.
I’d rather Antifa keep all that up and anything else they can think of.
Fascism is a sickness from which someone can recover.
It’s okay to fight with a sick person who is flailing and who is about to hurt someone else but that’s not the best first response. Restrain and cure are way better. Prevent the spread of the disease.
Then everyone can go home safe and sound.