# Is Antifa real?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 16, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782 "2017-08-16T11:27:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782/101 "2017-08-18T14:59:18Z")

</div>

> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#):
>
> I think I was clear enough.
> 
> In the sentence which immediately preceded the one you quoted, I said the antifa “_can shut down conservatives all over the place by realistically threatening “protests” understood to involve violence, which then creates a security issue_”. In light of that, the sentence which followed that was clearly about this broader type of impact in the case of Nazis.

Okay, fair enough, for some reason it read differently to me the first time I read it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782/102 "2017-08-18T18:28:52Z")

</div>

> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#):
>
> 1. that’s not the definition of fascism,
> 2. the antifa are certainly violent but they’re not particularly authoritarian or nationalist,
> 3. “propaganda of the deed” is Bakunin, not Bukharin. Bukharin represented the conservative/moderate wing of the early Soviet Communists and was executed under Stalin.

If you have a better definition then you should offer it.  
Definitely not nationalist, but very authoritarian in that they don’t believe anyone who disagrees with them has a right to speak or to assemble.  
Both foreigners with funny name, but Bakunin is correct. Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782/103 "2017-08-18T18:32:17Z")

</div>

> [@puddleglum](#):
>
> If you have a better definition then you should offer it.  
> Definitely not nationalist, but very authoritarian in that they don’t believe anyone who disagrees with them has a right to speak or to assemble.  
> Both foreigners with funny name, but Bakunin is correct. Thanks.

I don’t think fascism is a useful term and I don’t really use it, so I’m certainly not going to offer a definition. Consult someone who routinely uses the term and see how they use it, I guarantee ‘socialism’ isn’t necessarily part of their definition, nor is ‘violence’.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782/104 "2017-08-18T18:34:17Z")

</div>

> [@E-DUB](#):
>
> A person who says that the Earth is flat is wrong. A person who says that the Earth is a perfect sphere is wrong. But the person who says the Earth is a perfect sphere is less wrong than the person who says the Earth is flat. There are degrees of wrongness.-Paraphrased from Isaac Asimov.

IIRC the last part of his quote was “if you believe the spherical-earth man and the flat-earth man are equally wrong, you’re more wrong than either of them are.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782/105 "2017-08-30T02:22:29Z")

</div>

> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#):
>
> I suspect that really means that the people they attack are people who you don’t like much anyway.

And attack them because they don’t like what they have to say. Which, apparently, some here think is a pretty cool thing to do.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-antifa-real/793782.md?page=5)