Not that they’re credible news sources or anything, but a lot of figures on the right–Trump, Jim Jeffries, William Barr–have described Antifa in the most threatening terms. It makes me wonder: What is the most heinous thing any self-described member of Antifa has ever been convicted of doing? A lot of the broken windows and Molotov cocktails can credibly be blamed on outside provocateurs, and there are questions about whether the Dayton mass shooter was actually a member. How worried should I actually be that they are out to burn, say, Portland to the ground?
I live in Portland. “Antifa” is a boogieman to the right, bigtime. “Antifa” means “anti-fascist” and it’s meant to be the default setting for humans. Those who run with antifa are just regular joes who are more dedicated than most to punching nazis and counterprotesting whenever the white supremacist fucktards come to town from Washington, where they mostly den up. Antifa is anyone who thinks nazis suck and need to be taught a lesson so they’ll go the fuck home and stay there. If I weren’t a physically infirm granny I’d be out there punching nazis too.
They assaulted a guy with a American flag who was standing near some white supremacists. They assaulted a journalist who ran with white supremacists.
Antifa is not into property damage. They are into counter demonstrating vs Nazis, etc and occasionally “punching” one.
Since antifa is not in any way organized it is easily infiltrated by Black Blok anarchists and other groups who do all that property damage.
They held a bake sale in my town. The bastards.
[Moderating]
When I saw the thread title, I expected that I would have to move this thread to IMHO. However, the OP has sufficiently qualified the question, with “self-described” and “convicted”, that a factual answer should be possible. Let’s stick to that factual answer, without (in this thread) offering jokes or opinions.
Jim Jefferies, the Australian comedian?
Nailed it in one
Jim Jordan, maybe?
Yes, Jim Jordan. My apology to Mr. Jeffries.
Attacking Andy Ngo and giving him a Traumatic Brain Injury.
Depends on what you think of as worse. A member threw bombs at an ICE facility and tried to use a propane bomb before being shot. One member attacked a man outside of a party in Philadelphia and sent him to the hospital. They attacked a journalist and sent him to the hospital with a brain injury. They tried to burn down a courthouse and Portland and injured numerous federal employees inside.
Antifa? According to Fox news, and he said he was anti-facist.
According to The Washington Post , van Spronsen was an anarchist who claimed to be associated with antifascists known as antifa.
*Van Spronsen’s daughter, who describes herself as an advocate of liberal pacifism, describes her father as a supporter of anarchism but had written that she disagreed with him “on some principles, such as the use of force and weapons in the fight”.
See, anyone can say 'antifa", but this was a lone guy, acting on his own, not a Antifa counter demonstration. You can say he was a anarchist just as well.
He still meets the “self-described” standard, though.
In his manifesto he wrote ""i regret that i will miss the rest of the revolution,“doing what i can to help defend my precious and wondrous people is an experience too rich to describe. i am antifa.”
Hard to say, with his well-known history of posting (debunked) doctored videos.
But they certainly attacked him. No doubt. Mind you, he was hanging out with a white supremacist group at the time.
I dont care for Ngo’s politics, but he is a journalist, and they should not be attacked by either side. So, that was wrong.
He’s a provocateur and blogs about it. That’s not journalism. He picks fights and films it and doctors it.
Honestly, just Google “debunking Andy Ngo”. He’s largely to blame for the whole “antifa” “issue”.
The other side would say the same about several radical journalists hurt in Portland.
It doesnt matter if you dont like their politics, journalists should be off limits. Same with medics, etc.
So you didn’t Google “debunking Andy Ngo”.