The key things you need to know about this story, and why it keeps happening again and again, are as follows:
[ul]
[li]Groups like Patriot Prayer and The Proud Boys repeatedly travel from out of town or out of state to stage “rallies” in Portland[/li][li]We know that they plan to be violent and start fights at these rallies[/li][li]We know that they and their allies in the right-wing media will consistently lie about who started the violence and who is responsible, and that this is an intentional part of their media strategy.[/li][li]We know that many of the cops in Portland are actively on the side of the fascist attackers[/li][/ul]
Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is that you took this blurry video as evidence of “ANTIFA VIOLINS!!1” without spending even five minutes to look for context. Self-defense is not the same thing as aggression, and John Blum was a neo-nazi with a weapon who went looking for a fight and got one. Then, immediately, his neo-nazi buddies took it out of context in an attempt to make him look like an innocent victim. That should give you pause - the fact that you have already been conned by this bullshit propaganda campaign once should make you slow down and say, “Whoa, what else are these people lying to me about?”
Here’s another example. From the rally today, the story going around the right-wing mediasphere is that antifa hit a “patriot” with a hammer.
Except…
https://twitter.com/BelowStudent/status/1162919216489648130
Whoops, the dude was hit with his own hammer, and he came out swinging first.
And we know full well this is a psyop. We have receipts! These protestors are planning for violence. Then, when they bring violence to Portland’s streets again and again and again and get some pushback from people who are a little sick of neo-nazis being bussed in from out of town to start riots, they immediately play the victim. The John Blum case is just the most obvious example of a long-standing trend in neo-nazi propaganda - start a fight, lose a fight, claim to be victimized by antifa. And if the reporting on this was anywhere near honest or accurate, we wouldn’t be having these problems.
We know all of this not because of actual mainstream reporters, but largely because of on-the-ground antifascist activists who are trying to protect their city and expose the neo-nazis behind the violence.
Joey Gibson, head of Patriot Prayer, has been indicted for felony rioting. When the actual evidence shakes out, we get a much better picture of what’s going on.
Any news outlet framing this as “Antifa, right-wing groups clash” is doing their readers a disservice. Any news outlet framing this as “Antifa attack patriots” is a propaganda network intentionally lying to you. Any person pushing a both-sides narrative is either a fool or trying to fool you. We are dealing with fascists. What’s the first thing you should know about fascists? “Fascists always lie”.
I don’t have good odds on whether pool is misinformed or misinforming, and ultimately, I don’t really care. He’s going to bat for fascists against antifascists. I shouldn’t have to explain what’s wrong with that.