What groups are ANTIFA in the USA? That's just a general term what groups are the anti-fascist?
Yes, it is a grouping, but not so general. It is reserved for leftist groups that overtly espouse violence as a method, usually to incite riot behavior and therefore ensure chaos to disrupt events rather than enable lawful assemblies.
As unpalatable as white supremacists are, until they advocate physical violence or criminal acts, their assembly is legal and within the law of the US. It's all well and good to wish away the right of assembly for those we disagree with, but that subversion of citizens' rights is as large a threat as Nazis.
I agree with George Orwell when he observed a Communist and a Fascist are somewhat nearer to one another than either is to a democrat. Whereas I espouse some tenets of Socialism, I quickly and clearly oppose violent methods in anything but self-defense.
Anyone going to a protest armed with pepper spray, bricks, and batons is not going to share ideas, but to engage in street fighting. I am categorically and unapologetically against it. If there is a belief that civil rights advocates will be targeted by police or the far right, then we have cell phones and cameras and lawyers for that, not armaments.
One thing is certain hate groups like fascist Nazi's, KKK well they have a long and proven history of violence. They aren't afraid now or ever to use it. They will use violence and you cannot be a pacifist unless you welcome being the victim. If not the victim being a cowardly pussy while others are abused by these shit wads. Violence begets violence or it gets compliance by the aggressor to the prey.
Hate groups are hate groups by definition, but that definition has been expanded, especially by those on the left who want to marginalize anyone who doesn't agree with their views. And pacifist has a definition too, and it isn't applied meaningfully to those who oppose civil rights protest violence. Pacifism is the extreme view that violence is never required, not even in war to oppose attack. That is not my position. My position is the same as the majority of Americans, that in forums where ideas are the subject of debate, physical attacks are out of bounds -- no pies in the face, no rock throwing, no brawls, no mace, etc.
A perfect example is your base, last resort of using epithets in this debate. The effective response in the forum of ideas is to address the ideas, not find where you live and whip your ass or burn your car. Violence doesn't win an argument, it only moves the exchange to a level that is about the same as a schoolyard bully.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. But I say fuck the pen because you can die by the sword.
Pithy, but pointless. If you don't believe you can die by the pen, you need to understand law and history, as the swords to day are controlled by the pens that have formed governments and law. The same applies to words on the internet or in the press -- many respond to them in violence.
Bullshit if you don't think the complacency of all of the GOP is not a trigger over the last couple of decades for this tea party bullshit of hate to run a muck. Long before figurehead Trump started the birther shit. You go hide your head in your pacifist sand box, you're too old anyway.
I disagree with the observation that the far right is run amuck. The idea that they
need a trigger to share or promote their bigotry is errant. They've always been there, and they've always been odious. I actually welcome the president's missteps in this area, as it clearly had the direct effect of forcing his entire (elected) party to distance themselves from him, without exception. It is great that they are meeting in public so that their views and very existence can be known, their size or strength calibrated, and their faces known. That's far more honest than the nefarious ANTIFA vandals who hid their faces with masks. Honest men have no need.
Far from hiding my head in the sand, I am here debating the idea in a widely read forum, addressing the topic and my position is in step with representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center, hardly a group with Nazi sympathy.
Too old at 56? That is possible. I may be too old to justify gratuitous violence as justified simply because I am a member of a younger generation that disowns the rule of law. If that is the product of age, I wear it proudly. Five decades of life are hard-earned, and finding myself attacked for them is humorous to me. That is tantamount to telling me to go home and die, a pretty weak wish by an opponent in debate. You'll have to do better than that to take the field for your own.
