Antifa thugs? I thought thugs was a racist term now. And what’s with the redundancy in those headlines?
Well, it’s kind of hard to make paraphrases of loony-right news media sound authentic without using racist terms.
By the way, just as an update for the various Dopers who were having conniption fits in another discussion not too long ago about the alleged absurdity of claiming that the so-called “Betsy Ross flag” symbol has any cultural associations with right-wingnuttery and racism, here’s the Three Percenters’ flag.
Like all bullies and trolls. It’s **all **about the reactions they can provoke.
My personal favorite
It’s not, though some people have unsuccessfully tried to make it one.
The term did come from a supposed Indian death cult (Thuggee), but I’m not aware of it being used as an anti-Indian term. (Not in modern day, though I believe it was in the days of British colonialism.)
So, I’m supposed to be scared of Antifa now? Am I still supposed to be scared of the New Black Panther Party, or are we admitting that was bullshit the way we will be admitting that Antifa fear is bullshit in a few years?
“Thug” is one of those ambiguous dogwhistle terms, like using “New York” to mean “Jewish”. Literally, “thug” only means something like “a criminally aggressive person”. But racists tend not to use “thug” to refer to criminally aggressive people who are, say, white nationalists. “Thug” to them connotes concepts like “inner-city (i.e., black) hoodlums” and people they consider inappropriately sympathetic to “inner-city hoodlums” (i.e., liberals).
They had a video on liveleak of alleged Antifa members a while back in Portland bludgeoning a random old man with a crowbar to the head causing major bleeding, I think I’d be nervous of any large, angry group of young people no matter what the political cause, mobs are bad mmm’kay.
So those who travelled to Oregon from other places to hold their rally there, what are they marching for? Do they have a platform, gripes? Don’t tell me they’re marching for free speech, or some other bullshit. What is the point of this march, what are they trying to say?
They’re not doing it just for lulz; think about why they organized their rally: to get antifa put on an official governmental list of terrorist organizations, which means federal scrutiny and potentially lengthy mandatory minimum federal imprisonment for conspiring to commit acts of terror. I’m sure antifa and ACLU would litigate this in court, but there would be a chilling effect, no doubt.
Meanwhile, where’s the threat to call Proud Boys a terrorist organization? Where’s the threat to call other white nationalist groups and decentralized affiliations terrorism? The Trump administration wants their online activity not just protected as “free speech” but they want to use the power of federal regulatory oversight to force social media companies to carry their content.
Yes, mobs are bad. The white supremacist mob that descended on Portland today from all over the the country is one of the worst mobs.
To agitate, and to mainstream the cause of White Nationalism. If they can walk away from a violent confrontation with no sanction against them and having succeeded in getting antifa placed on a list of terrorist organizations, then that adds greater legitimacy to their cause, to the cause of far-right politics, which includes white nationalism. Ironically, there are some members of Proud Boys who are non-white, and who don’t yet understand that they’re legitimizing terrorism against themselves. People like Candace Owen and Andy Ngo think they’re immune because they’re on the same team. In the end, they’re not, and they never will be, and they will probably learn this the hard way. But not before many others before them.
Yeah, but what I meant was: What is their supposed legitimate reason? You know how at most protest marches there are people with signs? The signs usually state just what they want. “What do we want? This thing on my sign. When do we want it? Now.”
That kind of thing. What is the so-called thing they are asking for? Are they not even pretending to have a purpose?
I wouldn’t know, I’ve never heard of the Proud Boys till recently, do they attack people too?
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=Cd38I_1561920937
There’s the video I was talking about. Who are the Proud Boys, are they the same group from Charlottesville, or some other group?
Yes. Now you know.
According to that article, they were present at Charlottesville but were not involved with organizing the event and have supposedly distanced themselves from the violence.
Proud Boys Declare Portland Rally a Success: ‘Go Look at President Trump’s Twitter’
At least one of the far-right groups that squared-off against antifascist demonstrators in Portland said they’d gotten exactly what they wanted: a sign of Trump’s support.
I wonder if Trump will say there were good people on both sides. Nah, the anti-Nazis will probably be labeled as a terrorist group.
Just like those fuckin’ Antifa bastards on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944. Bunch of thugs showed up on the beach and started fights with those good folks who were just sitting in their bunkers.
The difference is that Antifa is not very bright. They are far too easily agitated and then being not too bright they start smashing things and people. It doesn’t help that they always wear masks. They look like dangerous anarchists.
If I were the folks squaring against Antifa I’d repeat visits to those towns that have nests of Antifa until the business owners that pay the taxes to the security forces get sick of taxes going for riot control and force the local government to crack down on masked rioters.
Those clowns won’t go for that because it’s not just a fight they’re looking for. They’re looking for a fight they think they can win. They won’t attack anyone they do not perceive as weaker than they are.