US Congress proposal to declare Antifa a terrorist organization
It appears the US congress has just proposed (edited) a bill that declares "Antifa" a terrorist organization.
This doesn't even make sense as Antifa isn't an organization, but just a shared name for anyone that self-identifies as a person opposed to and willing to fight fascism 🤦♂️
Stay safe out there!
Note: SLRPNK is an EU based service and we are openly Antifa here, and proudly so!
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sooo theyre announcing they are officially pro fascism. got it.
"Antifa are the real fascists. We need to end the menace of foreign sponsored radical leftists. The tankies would be worse" is a thing conservatives routinely say to get liberals to follow along with henious state violence
Except calling people "tankies". I had never even heard the word before joining Lemmy.
They don't seem to be very common elsewhere, but the lemmy devs are tankies, and mostly made it for their tankie friends (and probably weren't overly thrilled when we normies migrated from Reddit), so they're disproportionately represented here, even after most of them barricaded themselves inside lemmygrad.
I'm aware yeah, just saying that it's not a term really all that well-known outside of these circles.
I've learned about it on Facebook like a decade ago. Also seen it used in places like twitch.
But in all the cases, it's been within leftish circles, never people on the right (by US standards at least).
It's been a term liberals have kicked around since the 1950s. I remember Ron Paul types using it to describe Obama voters as far back as 2008. "You're going to force Christian doctors to do abortions at gunpoint" was a popular talking point.
tankie was coined by libertarian communists not by liberals. stop butchering history
It was coined by British Trots to describe Internationalists who failed to condemn Stalin's occupation of Eastern Europe. Western liberals adopted the terminology to describe any form of insurgent anti-colonialist movement or its supporters. Eventually, it became a tag-line for American activists and politicians writ-large.
where can I read more about Trotskyists coining it? also, what are the "anti-colonialist" movements you speak of?
It seems to be spreading. Much to my surprise I recently read the term in an opinion piece in a relatively mainstream online news site. But it might have been written by a fellow lemming.
I've never met a conservative in real life that would know what the fuck a "tankie" is.
So in America anti-fascists are terrorists and murderous insurrectionists are heroes. Their forefathers must just be spinning in their graves.
Either the voters wanted it, or the sit outs didn't think it was that big a deal. That's how they won, basically. Of course they will blame the politicians and the system for giving them bad candidates. I mean, the alternative is to take responsibility for their cluster fuck.
There was also a shit ton of voter suppression and gerrymandering that made taking both houses of congress way easier. It was a lot of things combined.
At the end of the day the Democrats failed to make a compelling argument to enough people to win.
Talking shit about people who wanted them to be different is pretty stupid. I see this all over here and it’s basically just doubling down on some of the attitudes and holier than thou bullshit that is what lost things for us here.
FWIW I voted for them, while also wishing they were different, and being deeply upset with some of their positions. I’m not who you’re attacking, but you aren’t doing anyone any favors with that nonsense.
I don't really care how people voted. But to blame the system for an obvious choice they should have made is a fucking cop out. Own your choices. You did. I'm talking about all the people who didn't vote and are now surprised the country is becoming what they said it'd become. There is never an ideal choice. They should grow up and quit whining when the thing they could have stopped but didn't because it wasn't ideal happened. It's like an incel waiting for a perfect mate and whining why no one will give you the time of day.
Why have elections at all when you're going to present people with "obvious" choices?
Biden should have simply cooronated his heir apparent. Seems like the whole election process was the mistake.
The deeply depressing part of this delusion is still believing Biden/Haris would have ended the Gaza genocide in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary.
Trump landed a ceasefire day one, because he pushed back on Netanyahu ever so slightly.
Not only was ending the genocide possible, it was incredibly easy. Biden's team just didn't want to do it.
the thing people were whining about is a fucking genocide you monster
I'm very sure they're satisfied now. Aid to Israel and plans to ship the Palestinians out. Well done!
Oh and obligatory fuck off
Ah yes cause the fascist was gonna stop the genocide.
What, Biden wasn't genociding hard enough so they voted for the orange fascist who everyone knew would be several orders of magnitude worse..?
Ok. Happy now?
I'm reminded of the police violence under Obama - practical on day one of his administration - and how his response was to invite the thug with a badge out for a beer.
The day after he left office, the police brutality that followed was thrown at the feet of Bernie Sanders. But we weren't supposed to acknowledge a problem white Dems were in office.
Can't afford to be divisive.
You're in an anarchist community... Do you consider yourself an anarchist? Because you sound like a liberal
Holy shit you're dumb. I'll refrain from the obvious political associations.
Lol
Our forefathers owned slaves. 🙄
And yet even with that, they were still against authoritarians like we have now. We are objectively worse than slave owners.
They were authoritarian against the indigenous peoples.
They barely allowed anyone to vote! What the fuck are you talking about?
But those that were allowed to vote were expected to know what the fuck was going on. Their position in society came with that expectation, and they had the time to stay up to date on events.
Our system of government is largely based on that fundamental assumption, an educated electorate. In our current system, the idiot with a room temperature IQ and never pays attention to anything political has the same voting power as someone that spends their free time following government and knows exactly what is happening, how their officials have been voting, etc.
An actually educated electorate is something we clearly no longer have, and our system of government is based on that fundamental assumption.
Our system of government was based on the assumption that only white property owning men know how to govern. The truth is, they're as dogshit stupid as the rest of us. The Founding fathers didn't believe in bathing! They day drank because low% beer was safer to drink than water! They thought disease was caused by bad smells instead of not washing your hands!
This country was founded by morons. Stop venerating them like a reactionary.
Well, the data does show that they managed to avoid turning the country into an authoritarian fascist state for over 200 years before we started making changes to that system without considering potential consequences from those changes. We made changes, did no study or mitigation of what might happen as a result of those changes, and here we are.
I'm not saying that everyone shouldn't have the right to vote, far from it, but the way our voting system works with the many changes we've made, it has fallen apart and is easily manipulated. There's a reason no other modern democracy uses our voting and governmental structure, it doesn't work well with things like universal suffrage. It works just fine as it was designed, and could work if we corrected for the things we changed blindly (like changing from first past the post to a ranked choice voting system). But that would inevitably result in removing power from the inevitable two party system we created, and they can't allow that.
Ask the natives that were rounded up into camps how non-authoritarian the US was. The Nazis were inspired by the US.
We're a highly reformed white supremacist settler-colonial project, we've come a long way from our horrible Founders.
You must admit they were anti-monarchist genocidal patriarchal slave owners, which you must also admit is an improvement over monarchist genocidal patriarchal slave owners and pretty woke compared to everything else Europe was doing at the time.
Until the French decided to show people how a revolution is really done.
stop butchering woke to mean the opposite of what it does. woke means being aware of racial oppression and white supremacy from a Black perspective, which is the opposite of what colonizer governments did
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunmore%27s_Proclamation
Lincoln would employ a similar gambit four score and seven years later, to a more successful end. Confederates would call him a monarchist genocidal patriarchal slave owners in response.
I don't think it's a bad point of order, but I do think it's disingenuous to compare the Emancipation Proclamation from an abolitionist (and Lincoln was, no matter the spin confederates try to put on it) to a ploy by a British governor that most historians agree was a practical maneuver and not related to his beliefs on the topic.
It certainly didn't free all slaves in the Empire, meaning the rebellion was still against another slave state. And Dunmore was himself a slaver, and would after his Proclamation buy more slaves for himself.
I'd probably conflate Dunmore's Proc with the First and Second Confiscation Acts. They both served as tools to undermine rebellious states without upsetting slavers still in their purview. The Emancipation Proclamation, and then the 13th Amendment, were expansions of the policy made afterwards by Congressmen who recognized there couldn't practically be a thin sliver of slave-legal states in between the abolition states and the confederate ones.
The UK abolished slavery in 1803, following a domestic wave of abolitionism that spilled over into the Northern US states. The abolitionist movement didn't end at any one border. Activists recognized abolition as a global struggle, one big reason why the UK failed to align with the Confederate States despite doing a lucrative textile trade on the backs of American plantation captives.
And of course its worth noting how post-abolition colonialism largely exported the brutal practices of slavery outside the view of UK/US consumers. That doesn't change how public disdain for slavery as a practice influenced governors like Dunmore, Kings like George III, and eventually Presidents like Lincoln to employ abolition as a weapon against political enemies.
This wasn't one thing or another. The moral revulsion generated by slavery made slave liberation and instigated slave revolts a popular tool of foreign powers and local dissidents. The politics of abolition were never exclusively a strategic or exclusively moral decision.
I can admit they were historically progressive in the same way that capitalism was historical progress from feudalism, but I'm not going to venerate them and act like they wouldn't approve of the modern far right.
If they were alive today they'd be extremely right wing.
Probably, yeah, most of them. That's just how environmental determination works. You can not escape materialism, in all its implications.
But there were, for example, abolitionists among them, it's how we can say that Jefferson and Washington were still slaving pieces of shit as it's clear they were aware of the moral implications and simply chose the path of greatest comfort for themselves.
The purpose of targeting an organization that doesn't exist is that anyone who opposes the state can be labeled antifa, and therefore a terrorist.
👆☝️👆☝️
This right here. Tyrants make up laws that are nebulous enough that you can charge whoever you want with them.
Guess I really need to pay attention if we have a "Tread of Fascists" flag hanging up then. Somehow it's potentially legally worse than a Confederate flag in the US? My poor, Union ancestors and very heavy U.S./Pennsylvanisch Deitsche ancestry.
Rose City Antifa is cited in the text of the bill.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/26/text
It is, but just as an example of "one chapter" of it. Anyone opposing them can easily be said to be Antifa as well.
💯
Check out our backstory here: https://continuetoserve.vet/
I can assure you, we as an organization, have been trying fully understand the context and implications of this since this came up under the first T' administration. Its a threat but it shouldn't stop you from considering your next steps and actions, which is exactly what they intend for it to do. The biggest mistake we, the royal we, as a resistance can make is to be caught flatfooted.
The "royal we" means you, not you and us.
Important detail: It isn't a bill that's been passed. It's only been introduced and referred to the judiciary committee. It'll be bigger news if it gets out of the committee, goes to the floor, and gets passed.
Thanks for the clarification, I edited the post.
Can we get a bill declaring proud boys a terrorists group?
No. Those are very fine people.
Their leader just got their sentence reduced, I think that sends a pretty clear message
Remember to get your official Antifa membership cards at https://antifa.org
That is amazing.
Lookin' good America.
We should elect more people that do things like this instead of passing legislation to help struggling Americans.
But, oh no, we already told the party with a voting history proving they do that on a regular basis to go fuck themselves and elected people who want to label ANTI-FASCISTS terrorists instead while releasing 1,500 actual terrorists who performed an actual terrorist act back into our society without serving their time.
Clown country.
The clown:
Apparently they are actually written by an intern with the help of ChatGPT 💩
The vagueness is the point. Vague laws transfer the power to those who enforce it (ACAB) who get to decide if that law applies in that case.
It's the same strategy used by the Spanish inquisition. Who's a witch? Keep it vague, and that answer becomes fully arbitrary and dependent on different social factors (such as people trying eliminate others and take their land by using such accusations). It also encourages everyone else to "signal" that they're not whatever the bad label is... as a precaution. Preemptive antiantifa. This is basic conservative society shit.
We saw the same thing since 2020 with the right-wing turning mask wearing into a signal for "weakness & femininity" and "leftism", and large numbers of conservatives decided that it was better to get COVID-19 and long COVID. Note that this wasn't STATE controlled, but it wasn't organic either, it was more of a private astroturfing phenomenon.
I'm not sure what the solution is, and I doubt that it's just one single thing, but I'd love to see some ideas.
The Spanish Inquisition was aimed at heretics (Jews, Protestants and Muslims), not witches.
And the secular arm was far worse when interrogating.
So antifa has a leader and a headquarters now? Is there a secret handshake? Dang. Nobody tells me anything.
They opened up next to Anonymous.
I need to ask my buddy 4chan to fill me in.
Everyone knows that 4chan is just you, me, and that other guy.
I don't count. I'm a bot.
Their vans are blue, not yellow.
As the democratically elected CEO of Antifa I'm surprised you didn't know about the Nazi Puncher Dab-Up
The address was on my W2, I'm not sure what you're complaining about.
And this is what'll make eggs cheaper, right?
...right?
Yeap, that surely will be the one....
20th century fascists actually delivered on their economic goals, at least temporarily, to get enough popular support to override rule of law. These 21st century fascists can't even get that part done before they took the mask off.
Neonazis, ok. Fighting against neonazis, not ok. Got it.
Maybe we just call ourselves "antfash" and if they ask we are just really into dressing up ants?
They don't care about the letter of the law, only putting people that disagree with them in prison.
The problem is they're going to decide who is and is not antifa. If they say you are, then you are. And if they say antifa are terrorists, then they are. Something like this is the end result in the "war on terror" stuff from the early 2000s. Or, alternately, "anything I don't like is woke" except they'll send the cops and/or feds to crack your skull or just straight up kill you.
Hmm. Could you reverse psychology it? "Antifa were the real fascists, so we decided we're just going to call ourselves fascists." And what would they do? Write a law declaring fascists to be terrorists?
Jokes.
Go for it. There's no such thing as antifa outside the minds of chuds. There's no organization. No roster of "members"
It's just people who are anti-fascist as a principle. And every living WWII vet.
That won't stop them from branding any opposition as a member of antifa to justify terrorism charges. This is alarming because it is a step in systematically suppressing opposition.
Ding ding ding. Winner winner. The fascism playbook requires persecution of an "outside" group. Antifa is a backup if immigrants doesn't work. Or if they don't like someone who isn't an immigrant.
My money on the first person prosecuted under Antifa-as-a-Terrorist-Org rule: AOC
Any guesses?
Yeah, such as people going to antifa meetings, people wearing antifa symbols, people posting they support antifa online and then proceeding to join protests in person from an antifa Facebook or discord or telegram group, then starting fires.
You really think claiming to be a headless organization is just a get out of jail free card?
Anti-fascism is popular. Big fuckin shocker there.
You sound like one of those people who whined about integration
Anyone can start a Facebook group, grandpa
"I'm a pacifist, I wear pacifist symbols, support pacifism online, and I joined a protest advertised on a pacifist Facebook group."
Pacifism isn't an organization. There are specific pacifist organizations that could individually be targeted, but there's no such thing as the "pacifism" organization, any more than there's a general "antifa".
Reeks of McCarthyism
The new big red boogeyman
Are you now, or have you ever been, a Lemming?!
Nonsense, I was at the head office of Antifa North America Legion just the other day!
This is why you don't let the nazis organize freely. They will always do what you should have done to them. Even when they had Trump on actual crimes they made sure that he would get the best possible chance to get away with it.
It's just a bottomless pit of stupidity
It's not stupidity when Nazis declare antifascists to be terrorists.
Sure was stupid to elect him though.
Since this is an EU community it should be mentioned that this cannot become law in the US without passing the Senate. Which is usually a much higher bar. The US House of Representatives is known for suggesting outrageous stuff that never even gets heard in the Senate.
I guarantee they'll find the votes. Senate Dems are notorious cowards
Only on specific issues that actually benefit the donor class.
Who has majority in the senate rn?
It's not that simple. The Republicans kept the filibuster. So they need 60 votes to pass things uncontested. They only have 53.
If he flips he doesn't count for 7 votes.
My grandfather was antifa and so am I. The 1911 is a solid choice for nazis.
There are many better choices for automatic pistol today than the 1911.
Few as fashionable though, especially for Nazi killing.
M1 Garand works pretty well too. Just be mindful where you put your thumb.
I remember the day that I applied to be a member of the ANTIFA organization. It was a gorgeous day, the sun warmed my back as I walked into their headquarters, documents in hand.
I met with the president, board members and committee. They gave me a uniform, took my picture, and printed an ID.
Then, I was invited into the private group chat, which everyone in ANTIFA is in.
But, times have changed.
Since then, they sold my data, and now I get fucking Dominos Pizza coupons all day. How am I meant to fight fascism with fucking pizza.
Wait, you got dominos coupons?!
I guess its because I paid for the Premium Crush The Patriarchy package.
At least I got some free stickers.
It’s marjorie taylor greene bullshit. Hopefully the rest of congress is smarter than this.
Narrator: They are not.
They want it again? Oh well, predictable as a clockwork.
An article from 2020, when Trump & co wanted it last time:
What Is Antifa, the Movement Trump Wants to Declare a Terror Group?
What they failed to learn last time:
As others have mentioned, they didn’t fail to learn it. Broadness and vagueness is the point. It’s a weapon, and broadness makes it a sharper tool to suppress anyone and everyone. Membership isnt a thing. So worst case scenario, they can easily say, “they called trump a fascist, and antifa literature has stated they aim to fight what they call fascism. Therefore they’re enemies of the state.”
At what point is crying fascism going to actually scare people? Because shit like this is definitely scary. They want a reason to arrest you? They look back at your social media and say in 2020 you posted pro-BLM remarks, supported the protests and defended property destruction: antifa.
Fucked up. Doubly so because “terrorism” charges are much, much more punitive. Basically, as soon as you’re charged with anything related to terrorism, you’re absolutely fucked with zero rights. Especially under a government that has no oversight and is out on an ideological rampage.
Trump's already half senile, what makes you think he remembers that? Or cares?
Antifa is like communism. Hitler is a communist and thus is evil until he is a smart man whose symbols we should revere and have streets named after him, then he is a nationalist who was assaulted by Poland and had to defend himself and whom the French and British suddenly and unjustly declared war on and claimed that Germans must be exterminated.
'We cannot rest until the sound of the German language is still heard around the platter we call earth.' Neville Chamberlin.
You probably realized that most of the stuff I wrote is deliberate bullshit. But there have been so many real examples of stuff written like that (fake quotes, strings of events that were either invented or skewed so badly they cease to resemble reality) that this is what a 'debate' with a fascist looks like. We've seen it with the whole Haitians are eating cats and dogs. That shit came out of nowhere and despite Kamala rightly laughing at it, people ate it all up and believed it.
Then they will accuse their opponents of being stupid and believing it... until they start to say it is real again when it is convenient. Pathological lying is a feature, not a bug.
Calling MLK a terrorist is like calling Gandhi a terrorist. They were both non violent.
Taking another angle, why aren't drone strikes considered terrorism?
Was totally a thing at the time:
The definition of terrorism specifically carves out nation state actors. If Osama Bin Laden were part of the Afghanistan military structure, then he wouldn't be a terrorist. Instead, he was running his own organization with Afghanistan support, which made him a non-state actor. So drone strikes by a nation state military wouldn't be terrorism, but would be if it's done by some rando.
Now, if you want to argue that nation states adopted a definition that conveniently left themselves out, I would agree.
Who even is antifa? There isn't an artifacts meeting every Thursday bcz it isn't a group.
For the purposes of the autocrats though, a group that isn't really a group is the best kind.
If nobody's a certain member, everybody's a possible member.
"Are you now or have you ever been a member of Antifa?"
(McCarthy was working with actual nazis)
Then it's potentially anyone who doesn't go along with fascism.
Good! I'm not a Nazi but I think ANYONE that is Anti Nazi is a TERRORIST! And anyone who does a One Armed Salute is a HERO!
And North Korea is a Republic. It says so in the name, duh.
And the Nazis are socialists
I'm embarrassed to ask this but what is antifa? Anti-fascist? People who don't want another Hitler? If so, why is it so controversial and why do they think antifa stormed the capital because that's the last thing an antifa group would do.
antifa is an organized anti-fascist group dreamed up by trump. they don't exist, and never have. if you look at the things the bill cites as actions by antifa it includes blm, drag queen story hour, random forum posts, the capitol storming, and literally everything in between.
so, what they're doing is making everyone who goes against the government in any way a domestic terrorist, and simultaneously making "anti-fascist" a bad thing.
But that's literally them. They're the anti-government people who stormed the capital, said the election was rigged, and to hang Mike Pence. They are the domestic terrorists.
right, and by saying antifa did that they are simultaneously whitewashing the group of people who were at that rally and condemning their actions. antifa had infiltrated them, dontchaknow.
What kind of twisted games are they playing here?
They are justifyng and hiding their terrorism. They are fascists who are currently capturing the state. I am very doubtful that there will be another (fair?) US election if left unchecked.
it makes sense if you assume they are fascists.
Wrote up a summary months ago (with reputable sources!) and warned about Nazis too and was permabanned from Lemmy news and politics for it.
Idk man, you can tell people stuff, but it’s so hard for them to access what’s real right now. There’s a concerted online effort to suppress factual info.
https://lemmy.world/comment/13431373
TAKE THESE AND MAKE SOMETHING BETTER and brilliant… catchy! Record it. Link it. SPREAD IT. Let these people know they will be held accountable. And by these people I refer specifically to one actual person who has ever existed. These lyrics are entirely the work of Imagination and shared as art, free speech, poetry so that others can make great music with them. They are owned by everyone. In fact, I found them somewhere else and pasted them here.
He want to be a big man
But he know he a small man
In private he dress up and do the can can
He all cartoony like gruncle Stan Stan.
He gotta rich friend he think the man man
His rich friend he love the klan klan
The two be goose steppin’
The two be goose steppin’
In the mornin’ he pulling da fire alarma
He just trying to scare you and make up more trauma
He can’t live without all dat drama
He won’t eat middle eastern cause he says he hates dat schwarma.
Bad things gonna come back on him because of dat karma
The two be goose steppin’
The two be goose steppin’
He talkin’ real loud, tryna sound all tough
But we all know he cain’t sell that rough stuff
Big shoes, big coat, but he still bluff bluff
He be flexin’ like he diamond, but he straight Hufflepuff
Million dollar this that, but it all fake fake
Runnin’ round town like he pushin’ that weight weight
Luigi comin’ Luigi comin’
He scared of the dark, leave a night light on late
Tryna act all brave but his heart pumpin’ shake shake
Luigi comin’ Luigi comin’ ‘cause
The two be goose steppin’
The two be goose steppin’
He say he run the block, but he really just rent it
Tried to buy a Rolex, but the price he couldn’t dent it
All talk, no walk, that’s how he designed it
Tryna boss up but his clout been rewinded
He scared of his shadow, jumpin’ left and right
Actin’ like a king but he cryin’ every night
Luigi comin’
Say he got power, but his grip too light
He can’t handle heat, better step outta sight
The two be goose steppin’
The two be goose steppin’
He got a lil’ squad, they be all yes men
Sayin’ “yes sir,” but they all just pretend
He be braggin’ ‘bout his riches, but he can’t even spend
Tryna swing big, but his punches don’t extend
Talk about respect but he ain’t earned none
Still runnin’ from the truth like he stole some .
Lookin’ in the mirror, see a fraud, not a don
Tryna build an empire but the bricks all gone
The two be goose steppin’
The two be goose steppin’
Also… is there a group I don’t know of where talented producers might want to make this themselves for fun because it is a fun imaginative trifle?
antifa is not an organization. It's more of an identification, and a label that is placed by state media. BLM is an organization that might show up to same event. Anyone protesting Musk/nazi adjacent rules, would be called antifa.
This is a law against protests, where the more fascist the rulers are, the less you are allowed to protest.
The oligarchs are declaring war on the American population.
How far will they go until We the People get fed up? $10 eggs might be cutting it close.
Where tf do eggs cost so much? Am I really so far out in the country/removed from the shopping that I thought $4 a dozen sounded high? $5 is like, free range lady down the street price but she's gotta get hers so I don't begrudge her price.
We live in corporate feudalism now. Bye, capitalism.
If you're anti Antifa you are Fa
Trigger warning: German public service broadcasting :)
Doesn't that mean that all NATO allies should treat Antifa as a terrorist "organization", too?
AFAIK, NATO members need to declare terrorists as declared by another member as terrorists, too. That's why Europe is cracking down on the PKK. Might be wrong, though.
Is it "US Congress" or one congressperson introducing a bill that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing? How long do we have to keep having meaningless articles about bills that will go nowhere before people learn the very basics of how the US government works?
I really hope they don't find our membership lists and download them at
"Bist du Antiantifa, bist du einfach FA"
Antifa and Spartacus collab when?
yeah, us congress knows a thing or two about terrorism.