# Antifas - The largely imaginary boogeyman of the far right **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 2, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354 "2017-07-02T15:01:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/21 "2017-07-03T07:58:52Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The far right _controls the government;_ that’s as “influential” as you get. And they \*are \*typical of the Right. > > The Democrats marginalized their extremists, the Republicans embraced theirs and were consumed by them. This is an excellent summary of the crucial facts. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/22 "2017-07-03T19:52:08Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > Except that the WBC actually does show up at a fair number of events and they really do make a nuisance of themselves. They also do their own trolling, threatening to show up and then falling to do so. There’s no reason to think that anyone on the left is planting fake “WBC plans to protest (event).” Right. See, the WBC was Fred Phelps and his family, and that was it. The reason they got so much media coverage is that they turned themselves into a media trolling organization. And if you look into it, the reason Phelps did this was to isolate the grandchildren from everyone in the world, to keep them under his control. The kids go out to picket a funeral, everyone yells at them, and the kids are convinced that The World is a horrible place filled with scary people, and sticking with the family is the only option. Why do you think they went from protesting the funerals of people who died from AIDS to funerals of soldiers? Because Phelps wanted to isolate the kids not just from mainstream society, but from other right-wing fundagelicals. Plus Phelps was a legit sadist. So anyway, for a decade or so WBC would show up on TV and say outrageous things, and so of course the media fell in love with them as reliable over-the-top [heels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(professional_wrestling)). Sure you could book some guy from Focus on the Family on your show, but he’s just going to try to appear reasonable, which is boring. So bring on WBC for cheap heat. So WBC really existed, they were the creation of one man, they courted media attention with outrageous stunts and a willingness to be booked as heels on any platform at any time with no need to appeal to their fans (of which they had none) unlike other right-wing media performers, and benefited from that media attention in a loathsome symbiotic relationship. Antifa isn’t even a group, it’s just a couple of people willing to call themselves that, and they aren’t media whores who get on right-wing media by acting as leftist boogeyman heels. So not really much comparison, other than the realizing that both are/were completely irrelevant sideshows. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/23 "2017-07-03T20:58:13Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > No more than Westboro Baptist Church is the imaginary boogeyman of the far left. > > I doubt few middle-of-the-road Democrats (or Republicans, for that matter) really believe that WBC is either a harbinger of the future of conservatism or represents even a large minority of conservatives. They are a statistically insignificant number of wingnuts that have attempted to use outrageous behavior to make themselves appear significant. It’s not the Westboro Baptist Church we need to worry about. They are, as you observe, a fringe movement like the YouTubers that were linked to above. But there are people who five years ago had obscure alt-right websites and now have offices in the White House. They’re no longer a joke we can laugh off. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/24 "2017-07-03T22:06:29Z")
It’s not a great flag to fly: “My biggest enemies are the anti-fascists” it really begs the questions right and left so to speak. What’s next: “My enemies are the children who grow up to be liberals” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/25 "2017-07-04T01:12:42Z")
I’m perfectly fine with there being an antifa boogeyman for the right. The right is primarily motivated by fear. And it means that us real liberals don’t have to get our hands dirty scaring them. We get to be the good guys, while these imaginary antifa people get to be the enforcers, making the right feel like they will get hurt if they don’t at least try to listen. I still think this was part of the dynamic that allowed the Civil Right Movement to be the success that it was. You had Martin Luther King Jr preaching non-violence, but you had Malcolm X saying violence was necessary. The Black Panthers, while real, were blown up into a mythical status, and the bigoted assholes had to be afraid of them. All the while the rest of us could say “violence is wrong.” So I suggest we also do what they did back then. Keep on saying we hate violence. That it’s never acceptable. While, at the same time, realizing that this largely imaginary boogeyman is actually helpful to the cause. Let those who refuse to listen to reason become more scared of antifa than they are of change and people who are different from them. Ideally, the non-violent stuff will work, but I’m not going to freak out if fear of violence also gets the right results. Ever since they elected Trump and showed their true colors in enjoying how awful he is to everyone they hate, I stopped caring about how they feel. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/26 "2017-07-04T12:30:13Z")
Antifas seem to be kids (everyone younger than 30 is a “kid” of late, sorry) who want to play armed leftist resistance to the right-wing brownshirts and jackboot-wearers. I’m somewhat ok with that. I’m certainly too old to run around doing what they do. I like the idea of non-violence, but when your adversary says it wants to literally harm people it disagrees with… > [@Trancephalic](#): > > Here comes antifas/ > Here comes antifas/ > Right down antifas lane Earworm! Fucker. :mad: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/27 "2017-07-04T12:45:51Z")
Wait…so are we still being bankrolled by George Soros in order to spread the Gospel According to Saul Alinsky or what? I haven’t had a memo in ages. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/28 "2017-07-04T16:54:28Z")
New Jersey has classified [Antifas as Domestic Terrorists](https://www.njhomelandsecurity.gov/analysis/anarchist-extremists-antifa?rq=antifa), so not entirely an imaginary boogeyman it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/29 "2017-07-04T17:05:10Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > New Jersey has classified [Antifas as Domestic Terrorists](https://www.njhomelandsecurity.gov/analysis/anarchist-extremists-antifa?rq=antifa) Well, of course. NJ is led by a governor who is best buds with the poster boy for the far right. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/30 "2017-07-04T17:07:12Z")
> [@](#): > > …Anti-fascist groups, or “Antifa,” are a subset of the anarchist movement and focus on issues involving racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism, as well as other _perceived_ injustices… (emphasis added) Pretty sure those actually _are_ “injustices”, and perception has little, if anything, to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/31 "2017-07-04T17:27:56Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > New Jersey has classified [Antifas as Domestic Terrorists](https://www.njhomelandsecurity.gov/analysis/anarchist-extremists-antifa?rq=antifa), so not entirely an imaginary boogeyman it seems. Sure. This is the party which was passing anti-ACORN laws well after ACORN ceased to exist. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/32 "2017-07-04T18:56:12Z")
Anybody else actually read that thing? Maybe the drugs are finally kicking in, but seems to me it presents those poor dear White Supremacists as the good guys. WTAF? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/33 "2017-07-04T19:48:08Z")
If we squeeze a fascist and an anti-fascist into the same space, could the resulting atomic annihilation be harnessed as an energy source? Clean energy and a better political environment too! ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/34 "2017-07-04T19:51:16Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > If we squeeze a fascist and an anti-fascist into the same space, could the resulting atomic annihilation be harnessed as an energy source? Clean energy and a better political environment too! What do you have against anti-fascism? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/35 "2017-07-04T19:56:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Anybody else actually read that thing? Maybe the drugs are finally kicking in, but seems to me it presents those poor dear White Supremacists as the good guys. WTAF? Well, as has been said here and about everywhere else: How does declaring anti-fascists your enemy make you look good? Pretty much saying you’re a fascist. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/36 "2017-07-04T20:51:20Z")
The Soviets, for a time, used “anti-fascist” as a slogan after the massive revulsion towards the Stalin/Hitler Pact of Eternal Friendship. “Big tent” sort of thing, all remotely lefty or liberal opposing Fascism. No way would the Comintern try to take over. OK, maybe a little… ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/37 "2017-07-04T21:14:35Z")
Rick Kitchen wrote: “What do you have against anti-fascism?” Nothing, as a pholosophy. Although, I am leery, generally speaking, against defining ones self negatively. (IE: By what you’re not.) As supposed practiced by the crowd currently claiming the name, well not a big fan of violence used as a political tool. I know, silly me, and if the other side has 'em, I suppose we’ve got to have them too. But I don’t have to like it. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/38 "2017-07-04T21:30:37Z")
Oh let’s be clear. Outside of that little group, I don’t know anyone on the left who supports that kind of bullshit. But considering that the Gettysburg thing was supposedly tracked back to some right wingers doing a false flag and some other incidents, it is clear that some people on the right are trying really hard to make them a thing and whip up their own side by pretending to be Antifas. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/39 "2017-07-04T21:33:00Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > What do you have against anti-fascism? I had an Aunty Fascism. She was a bit of a wild one. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354/40 "2017-07-04T21:38:39Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Rick Kitchen wrote: “What do you have against anti-fascism?” Nothing, as a pholosophy. Although, I am leery, generally speaking, against defining ones self negatively. (IE: By what you’re not.) > > As supposed practiced by the crowd currently claiming the name, well not a big fan of violence used as a political tool. I know, silly me, and if the other side has 'em, I suppose we’ve got to have them too. But I don’t have to like it. Should have just called themselves Antiass. Anti-Asshole. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antifas-the-largely-imaginary-boogeyman-of-the-far-right/790354.md?page=3)