Anarchism and Social Ecology @slrpnk.net

3d ago

US Congress proposal to declare Antifa a terrorist organization

www.congress.gov /119/bills/hres26/BILLS-119hres26ih.pdf

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!

155 comments

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

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.

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.

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.

My grandfather was antifa and so am I. The 1911 is a solid choice for nazis.
- M1 Garand works pretty well too. Just be mindful where you put your thumb.
- There are many better choices for automatic pistol today than the 1911.
  
  Few as fashionable though, especially for Nazi killing.

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.
- Clown country
  The clown:

yeah, us congress knows a thing or two about terrorism.

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
  
  I've never met a conservative in real life that would know what the fuck a "tankie" is.
  
  Except calling people "tankies". I had never even heard the word before joining Lemmy.

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.
  
  Whats funny about this is that Biden continued almost all of Trumps most right-wing policies, deported more people than Trump, was ramping up enforcement on immigration, was furthering the teade war nonsense, gave more money to police and military, gave Israel hundreds of billions in genocide aid. don't forget that Biden and desmocratic Mayors across the US were just as down to criminalize Antifa, to the point of using gang enhancements. Like you people think it's different one way or the other, like voters were choosing between fascism and something else, when we have always been voting for pepsi or coke oligarachy and thats not a thing that's changed. In fascism their is one state party, but instead of party our politicians are united by class and it's always been a class war on the poor and most vulnerable people, because the rich resent that we ever had enough power to resist our own enslavement. Trump just neglects the layers of goverent and immediately implements the oligarchy agenda. The problem isn't just Trump, watch how many democrats vote in favor of his most atrocious legislation, because there is no part of the oligarchy that is meaningfully opposing Trump. Fascism has changed slightly since the last time. It is now entirely focused on class and Trump is the dictator of his class comrades. The rest of us better get in line as slaves or he will direct his next tantrum at us. There was no voting this shit away though, this shit was coming from Democrats as much as Republicans. We are actually now juat witnessing the same limits on electoral democracy that the weimar republic did aroubd the same time last century.
  
  You're in an anarchist community... Do you consider yourself an anarchist? Because you sound like a liberal
- 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.

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?
- Reeks of McCarthyism
- Nonsense, I was at the head office of Antifa North America Legion just the other day!
- The new big red boogeyman
  
  Are you now, or have you ever been, a Lemming?!

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.
- It's the same strategy used by the Spanish inquisition. Who's a witch?
  The Spanish Inquisition was aimed at heretics (Jews, Protestants and Muslims), not witches.
  
  And the secular arm was far worse when interrogating.

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:
Rather, antifa is more of a loose movement of activists whose followers share some philosophies and tactics.
- 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.
- 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.
- Trump's already half senile, what makes you think he remembers that? Or cares?

Neonazis, ok. Fighting against neonazis, not ok. Got it.

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.

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.
  
  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.

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.

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!

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.
- Where is the mention of the capitol riots? I feel like I'm losing my mind. Wouldn't put it past them to try to blame that on antifascists
  
  It was a bunch of cope/scapegoating that happened on Jan 6.
- 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.
  
  so, what they're doing is making everyone who goes against the government in any way a domestic terrorist
  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.
- you're right. antifa is anti-fascist. we don't want another hitler. and the reason it's "controversial" is that the right wants another hitler. they have another hitler. what we're engaged in now is a war about what truth is. the right wing has captured most of media. so they're trying to direct their actors to promote the message that antifa is the source of the problems to capture the ~50-60% of americans who never know what's going on. these dumbasses will be swayed by the most basic psy-op campaign. they are manufacturing consent for that they're about to do genocide against american community members

It’s marjorie taylor greene bullshit. Hopefully the rest of congress is smarter than this.
- Hopefully the rest of congress is smarter than this.
  🥲
- Narrator: They are not.

those poor fascists 😢
istg these new policies sound like they were made by a 11 year old conservative - except they're from an 80 year old fascist.
- Apparently they are actually written by an intern with the help of ChatGPT 💩
  
  at this point id believe that. its only been a couple of days after his inauguration and destroyed all his ties to other countries, revoke nb's passports and accelerate the gazan genocide
  beyond parody

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.
- this cannot become law in the US without passing 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.

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.
- When arrested, simply state, "Oh, no. You misunderstood! I'm totally anti-fashion and have absolutely nothing to do with those sorts you've clearly mislabeled me to by mistake!"
  
  "Gotta tell you, those shirts are so last reich."
- 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.

If you're anti Antifa you are Fa
Trigger warning: German public service broadcasting :)

Love that they still don't get that it's not an organisation.

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?

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.

You can try, but seeing as how anti fascism is not an organization but a moral position, that might be difficult.

And North Korea is a Republic. It says so in the name, duh.
- And the Nazis are socialists

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.

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)
- That's the fun part. Antifa is anyone they claim them to be. It's also funny to me how Jan 6th was antifa right up to trump pardoning them.
- Then it's potentially anyone who doesn't go along with fascism.

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?
- Have you slept for the past few weeks? All it takes is Trump seeing this bullshit and having some shit weasel whisper in his ear for him to executive order this into reality.