PSA for all the conservatives who don't understand what the hell ANTIFA means.
Antifa is shorthand for anti-fascism. It is not an organization. It's not a group of people. It's not a person or people or anything physically tangible. It's a movement. It's an ideology. There is no "leader."
Right wing talking heads screaming it's strictly anarchy, communism, or a "militant ideology" are spouting propaganda and lies in order to whip their base into a terrified, raging frenzy. Fear and anger are used to control Republican voters and to distract them from what fascists are actually doing.
Anti-fascists are opposed to violent supremacy, oppression, marginalization, racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and all other forms of oppressing minorities or vulnerable populations. Because it's not a formal organization, individuals and their actions can vary widely.
So when Republicans start shrieking "Antifa is doing this bad thing here!" they are lying to you. They're peddling propaganda. Antifa is not a physical thing, person, or organization capable of committing any sort of act. It literally just means anti-fascism.
What is fascism, you ask?
Fascism is generally described as a far right, authoritarian, ultranationalist, political ideology. It is anti democracy. Youth, masculinity, and strength are often highly fetishized.
Other aspects often include:
- Extreme nationalism. They see their country, the US in this case, as being superior to all other countries... to an extreme extent.
- Military supremacy
- Fascists protect corporate power and wealth. They put profits over people every single time. They pass laws protecting big corporations and give hefty tax cuts to the rich elites.
- Religion and government are enmeshed. Fascists often see themselves as "defenders of Christianity." They pass religious laws that force non-christians to comply with their religious beliefs... such as abortion bans, drag show bans, banning gender affirming care, and so on. They want to destroy any separation of church and state. This is commonly known as Christofascism.
- Labor power is suppressed. Fascists hate unions and workers' rights.
- The have strong disdain for intellectuals and the arts. They ban history, "CRT" (which isn't even a thing. Critical Race Theory is an advanced college course. CRT is required in laws school for laws students, for example, because they need to understand how systemic racism affects current laws.) They ban books. They attack higher education and want to dismantle public education. The ban the arts and artistic expression, such as drag shows and drag queens visible in public.
- They hate democracy and especially liberalism and leftist ideologies. They HATE liberals and progressives because fascists resist progression.
- They display acceptance of racism. This is quite evident with banning CRT and African American Studies, as Ron DeathSantis did in Florida.
- They have fraudulent elections. They want to consolidate power with one-party rule. They love gerrymandering pander propaganda proclaiming their elections were stolen when they lose.
- Rampant homophobia. They hate the queer community. We're seeing this play out on with the horrific attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.
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