FBI Labels Anti-Fascists and Anti-Racists as Violent Extremists
FBI Labels Anti-Fascists and Anti-Racists as Violent Extremists
A recently released document from the FBI indicates anti-fascists are as violent as those who would overthrow the U.S. government
A recently released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) document titled “Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide”* links common protest symbols to “terrorism” — another marker in a common theme of conflating militant protest for social justice with deadly terrorist violence within the United States. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Brennan Center have raised warnings about such documents, citing inadequate protections for people’s constitutional rights.
I refuse to believe those groups are terrorist organizations because the CIA has never armed them.
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if there were syops to radicalize anti-fascist groups to make them less appealing to the masses.
This is essentially my pet conspiracy theory about Alex Jones. He was a plant by the CIA, to make all conspiracy theorists look absolutely batshit crazy. By having him peddle the extreme theories right alongside the “these are a little too close to reality, and the people are getting dangerously close to figuring it out” theories, they’re able to discredit those accurate theories. Because now they don’t need to attack the individual theory; They can just attack the face of conspiracy theories.
Yet...have yet to arm them you mean...or they have and we won't know for 50 years.
So, being pro-democracy means you are a Violent Extremist?
https://vault.fbi.gov/domestic-terrorism-symbols-guide/domestic-terrorism-symbols-guide-part-01/view
No.
The document lists symbols that violent extremists use, but explicitly calls out that not everyone who uses those symbols is a violent extremist.
The punisher skull is also in there, but that doesn't mean they're claiming every asshole with a punisher skull on their truck is a terrorist. Just that if someone with a punisher skull on their truck shoots up a mosque, that the punisher iconography is evidence that it was an act of right-wing militia terrorism.
Republicans, at CPAC, loud and clear: "We are all domestic terrorists"
The FBI: "But whatabout antifa?"
Let’s not forget these idiots failed so bad to keep to the country safe because all their friends are racist bigots that they were clueless and powerless to stop an attempted violent overthrow of the US government that was planned PUBLICLY on Facebook by all their friends who they just hand wave off as “oh gary is nice, he just doesn’t like black people but he loves America so he is a good guy”.
Literally, what the hell else is the FBI for?
The traitors are on the inside, prepare accordingly
Excuses to label you as a criminal so their overreach is justified.
Talk about double speak, being against fascists and racists means you’re terrorist now, LMAO.
FBI has long since been relabeled as the face of the cia, nsa and are the gen pop wranglers.
Call this shit the fuck out for what it is, an attack against Americans of ALL political backgrounds. This is a unified issue, they might only be banging on your neighbors door but you are next.
Unfortunately, the face-eating leopard party is not generally concerned with their own faces, so long as people-they-hate's faces are being eaten too.
"Anti-fa" literally means anti-fascist. The allies storming the beaches of Normandy were "anti-fa." The only thing "anti-fa" wants these days is for cops to stop murdering them. Needless to say, I support that position.
Some idiot put that in the list for purely political reasons.
It's easy to hate antifa if you're fa.
Names are meaningless. The allies were fighting the "National Socialists", who weren't Socialists. Likewise, "Defund the Police" movement members need not actually support defunding the police - supporting lowering their funding without lowering it to zero still qualifies.
Part of me loves that they kept the title, because it's so easy to ask very brief questions to get the word's user to start blubbering.
"Anti-what? They're against 'fa'? Oh, what is that short for? What idea are these people opposing? Tell me."
LOL at all the downvotes for saying that fascism is bad. The Western world is totally screwed.
Yet when the Gadsen flag was put in the same leaflet there wasn't any commenting on political reasons
No, it's important to separate ideology from actions. Most, and all reasonable, would agree that fascism is bad. Most people are anti-fascist as is morally right and just.
The novel group of activists that call themselves Antifa have performed inexcusable, terrorist actions in the name of the movement and perverted it's noble goals. Fascism is bad, as are those that make misguided and foolish mistakes that harm innocents in the name of righteousness.
Antifa have performed inexcusable, terrorist actions in the name of the movement
Name one. And before you say it, no, looting after a protest goes south isn't an act of terror.
The novel group of activists that call themselves Antifa
Can you name any members of this group or share a news story of any action they have been a part of?
No, it’s important to separate ideology from actions.
Which is something the FBI has chosen not to do by calling the symbols of the ideology terrorist symbols instead of calling out any particular organizations that are doing anything actually criminal.
Antifa is not an organization, so if someone is labeling protest symbols as terrorism, we know where their loyalties lie. (hint: they don't want freedom of speech, they want to suppress the ideology).
Oh look... a confused fascist!
Your first half was good, but impugning terrorist actions on them wasn't the way to go.
I do agree though: setting fire to courthouses, or creating an environment of lawlessness that guarantees small mom and pop businesses get looted is also not a winning cause. Protesting and counter-protesting where normal operations can continue is essential. The moment you start fucking with people's day-to-day is where you lost.
LOL at this both sides copypasta.
Protests are nice to look at, but they paint free targets on everyone who participates. Conservatism/fascism has never been defeated by pacifism.
If you are motivated to resist fascism/conservatism, arm yourself and train appropriately. Take classes, join left-leaning gun clubs, survival groups and prepper classes. Exercise and learn to fight.
Conservatives have been prepping for years for a war they insist is necessary. They have decided you are their enemy. You cannot change that by protesting.
As a liberal gun owner, I agree.
I want a world without mass shootings.
But right now, the majority of mass shootings happen against the most vulnerable people. And the majority of hate crimes is happening because a bunch of fucktards are pushing violent messages. And the worst part is nobody in power really gives a shit.
When I was growing up in school there was only one mass shooting at the time and that was Columbine. Kids would drive to school with guns in their racks because they planned on hunting later. The notion to shoot people wasn't even a consideration. What we have isn't a gun issue, we have a mental health crisis like nothing we have seen before and we are far too unequipped to handle it. We need better mental health programs and ways for people to more easily use them from a young age.
Apartheid in South Africa was solved politically. The Troubles in Northern Ireland were solved politically. The Berlin wall collapsed and the Cold War ended without violence.
Nelson Mandela was accused of being a terrorist because he was one. The ANC mostly killed civilians, "civilians" that just so happened to be key figures in apartheid politics (well, that was their goal, anyways, and it worked well enough)
Also, just how myopic do you have to be to point to the collapse as the Soviet Union as being "solved politically" while ignoring several decades of proxy wars and an attempted coup?
Shit, it didn't even resolve that well other than independence for the satellite states, it just left Putin in charge in the end to get a million people killed himself.
Apartheid in South Africa was solved politically.
Bullshit. The Apartheid-regime would never have been ended if it wasn't for it's military defeat in Angola and the (extremely violent) uprising in South Africa itself.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland were solved politically.
Bullcrap. If it wasn't for the IRA, Ireland would still be England's doormat.
The Berlin wall collapsed and the Cold War ended without violence.
The (so-called) "Cold War" never ended... the US just switched to new pretexts to wage war on the 3rd world.
I'm not clear on what situation I'm supposed to anticipate in which shooting people is the preferred resolution.
I hear they call it the "boogaloo."
[Sarcasm] Don't worry, though, there are plenty of minorities to sacrifice to appease them. [Very sarcasm with extra pointyness] If you just throw us all into a meat grinder for their amusement they'll surely never do anything bad!
Voting is a better means of enacting change than protesting. If ethnonationalists control government and you try to actively resist then you get crushed. If liberal-progressives control government and they resist then they get crushed. Defend yourself to the fullest extent if the law but voting is more important than protesting. If the excrement hits the rotating assembly of air moving blades then you want those sympathetic to your ideals at the wheel not those hostile to your ideals. The three most important things in real estate is location, location, location and the three most important things in representative government is vote, vote, vote.
A big point of peaceful protesting is influencing elected officials and swaying voters. Voting and protesting to help are not either or. Don't just vote, and don't avoid voting.
Both are misguided views that help no one but fascists and naive accelerationists who have similar hero fantasies to race war nazis. Doing violence yourself isn't fun, and non violent actions like voting or protesting work better the more free and democratic a society is.
The US requires more than a simple majority to enact positive changes through voting, even when there is simple majority rule on paper. Voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, and informational manipulation keeps our democracy from working in the best interests of the majority of people. In order for change that goes against the interests of the ruling class to happen, you need much higher margins of support. Fascists only need a big enough minority to win because of how they've rigged the system against the poor and minoritized members of society.
Even in the most progressive states, where gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement are the lowest, the wealthy convince people to not vote in their best interests. Democratic candidates court the wealthy before trying to get support from the poor, because wealthy voters are more reliable and can give more campaign donations.
The conservative Dems have an advantage over the left, because leftists have developed learned helplessness with regards to electoral politics. They've lost so many times because of previously described efforts by the ruling class, that they have no belief in our current democracy, resulting in a self fulfilling prophecy.
Each side has labeled the other as the enemy, it isn't just conservatives. It's just a way for the people in power to make the citizens waste their energy on each other rather than focus on the real enemy. Both the right and the left are just tools to sperate everyone. If the citizens are fighting each other then who's going to fight the corruption in our government?
I partially agree with you, but also with the rest here. Yes, as people, we should be united fighting against the elites which don't let us live the life we deserve (because we are receiving less than we should considering our productivity, and because many problems can be solved already). We are all on a planet that we need to save, even if only for selfish reasons. We should be together. But the elites have seized the opportunity to divide us with ideologies such as economics, identity politics, etc. If they need an unfair war against a country to exploit it and extract its resources, they'll say it's about patriotism or security or something like that, and many people will believe it and support it. Just look how divided we are about current affairs.
The left usually goes against these interests. Thus the red scare, the fake leftists that only makes us look bad, etc. They need to disband the left, and they have an army willing to do so for free. Here's where these opinions enter. As long as an elite, yes, but also all their supporters go against us and against basic ethical principles, we cannot sit and say: "people, do not trivialize wars on social media, it is not nice", "oil is cool, but saving the planet is cooler", etc.
I believe in stronger actions, for example, the sabotage people are doing against the shipping of weapons that are meant to kill civilians in Palestine or the blockages against deep sea mining. These are actions that can save lives without actually hurting others as the economical damages are not going against individuals but big institutions that can manage the losses.
I also believe in dialogue. I actually dislike how we stop listening to each other as leftists: how moderate, often liberal-leaning leftists censor radical leftists such as marxist-leninists ("tankies") or gender critical feminists ("TERFs"), without listening to them. No, they do not necessarily promote hate and they have valid points that may need further exploration. That said, I believe in the censorship of hate speech, explicit hate speech like the videos circulating about how others deserve to die or deserve to suffer. That's unacceptable, no matter the group of people you are talking about. Indeed! If we say that we need to kill white supremacists, it is no better than them saying they need to cleanse the population. Still, we need to keep their hate and all hate out of the normal discourse and we need to defend ourselves in case others turn to violence.
In a nutshell, it's about defending the wellbeing of beings in the most peaceful and civil way possible. It is about defending ourselves while doing that, because the people in power and their supporters won't often like it.
Do you want a crude example? Read about the people defending the wild life in Mexico. Politicians and organized crime want to profit off those lands. They rob lands from people, often indigenous people; they get into illegal or non-sustainable logging; they enlarge the black markets, hurting and endangering populations; they transform regions, affecting the whole ecosystem. There are people, usually biologists, who warn against this and dedicate their lives to the protection of the forests, rain forests, etc. They end up dead. It is very dangerous to protect the monarch butterflies, the wolves, the big cats... Isn't that ridiculous and terribly sad?
This is how it has been for a long time. Speak words of freedom in the kingdom and you might lose your head. Stop the machines and they'll justify killing you. I mean, read Lord Byron's defense of the luddites and then think about how they dismissed it...
Personally, I do not see rightists as my enemies, I see them as people tragically going against others' and their own interests. The ones that are in power are blinded by it, and the ones that only follow are blinded by hope: "Someday I'll be rich, if only I defend the status quo a little longer".
My personal enemies are the horrid ideas, feelings, and values that accompany most of these acts I disapprove of. Selfishness, vanity, etc. Some people, many people (I am no exception), naturally tend to them in varying degrees, and I can only feel disappointment for the number of people that embrace them. That leads me to my secondary enemies, the things that make people do not defy them. Cowardice, apathy, dogmatism, etc.
Edit: And I do not have final answers. I do not know if we are in need of a revolution, a reform, an extinction, time... I know very little.
I am very sorry you got caught in one of my rambling, ranting comments. My point is that it is not a situation in which two sides are equally wrong, but a bunch of the population that sides with the tyrants you yourself allude to in your comment. People who still deserve our respect; that respect doesn't mean passivity when they actively affect others.
You are absolutely right and we need to fight against corruption and many other things, and that's why I consider myself a leftist: you name it whatever you like. These are my attempts at rationality and correctness, and, while I might be a minority in the details, I know I am in good company in the broader ideals. Many of us disagree in a very trivial way... Sorry, and thank you for reading this far.
Radical Centrism wins again
Oh no, what will we do if the FBI targets left-wing activists for insane reasons? They might give the J. Edgar Hoover Building a bad name.
And this is why we need to break the current command chain in domestic and foreign intelligence, we never actually banished the ghosts of the Kissinger days, just let them pick less noticeable successors that still hold the same basic world view.
The American public have no say this stuff either, by design, because "America's security interests" as determined by the military industrial complex are what really drive the nation's politics and foreign policy. Obviously antifascism is antiAmerican, because fascist governments enable private American companies to extract their resources, and antiracism is a threat under an economic system that invented the very notion of race and is inherently racist.
"Eat the Rich" is now a symbol of extremism.....
That is extremely funny and extremely stupid at the same time. Honestly, after both of those conflicting feelings wore off, I am left in a state of confusion.
I mean, I get it. Just because phrases or symbols are used in extremist movements doesn't make the phrase or symbol exclusively extreme, with some exceptions. (Idiots will look at that "guidebook" and just leverage the FBI classification as a means to reinforce a bias, regardless of the context.)
For example, the Gadsden flag is a part of American history. However, it has also been hijacked for different causes. (I sarcastically see it in its original context as people still holding a grudge against the British, TBH.)
However, it has also been hijacked for different causes.
Another example is an American flag off the back of a pickup truck, usually a sign that the driver is a bigoted douchebag
Part of why I like redesigning the US flag, I feel like the left needs their own banner that can read patriotic while still sending a strong message.
Latest direction I've gone has been switching the stars and stripes to represent the 7 original articles of the constitution and the 27 amendments that have since passed.
The old flag represents America's growth via manifest destiny, its growth as an empire via conquest, while this represents America's growth as a democracy via reform and the expansion of rights.
For reference:
I have nothing against the British, but I have a Gadsden flag sticker on the back of one of my bikes because it says "no step on snek." I dunno, I thought not stepping on the snek was always a pretty wise strategy.
I am wearing my "no step on snek" tee-shirt right now, actually. It's a great strategy to prevent a trip to the hospital, and I just wear the shirt for "snake awareness" reasons.
However, the "no step on snek" stickers and such are awesome. I see it as a clear jab at how some people grossly misunderstand history and any associated symbols. Meh. You can't always fix "stupid" but you can always make fun of it.
For example, the Gadsden flag is a part of American history. However, it has also been hijacked
And here are some of my favourite versions to mock those it's now mostly associated with:
Now all of a sudden Aerosmith has gone woke!!
Oh... so the secret police of a fundamentally white supremacist empire that funds and enables fascist terrorism all over the damn planet doesn't like anti-fascists and anti-racists?
Gee... who coulda thunk it?
Explains why they coddle white Trump terrorists
it explains a whole lot.
I mean we shouldn't be surprised, FBI never has had an interest in these so called "civil-rights"
Because they are on their side.
"Stop resisting!"
Often repeated by terrorists appealing to their body cameras.
So starwars is now considered terrorism propaganda, ok
Sounds like something fascists would do.
So they are publicly claiming the agency to be fascist and racist?
Nahh... that would be too on the nose.
If only they would finally arrest the president of Antifa, this would be unnecessary. Richard Antifa deserves to be held accountable!
Right???!! It's overdue. The should storm Antifa headquarters and pull Richard out of the main building to finally end this reckless attitude towards fascism!!
I label FBI as a waste of space that should be deleted.
More than 200 victims of sex trafficking were rescued during a nationwide enforcement campaign last month that also included the identification or arrest of more than five dozen suspected human traffickers and 126 individuals accused of child sexual exploitation and trafficking offenses. Source
The FBI does do important work too. If you Google "Operation Cross Country" you can find tons of local news articles showing local arrests in this operation.
There are 350 million people in the US, I have a higher bar for them tearing huge holes in our society to catch a tiny tiny amount of people.
Especially when we could put the insane amounts of money we throw at these bigots into giving people healthcare or other social support services and save far far far far more lives.
Also, as I said elsewhere the FBI utterly failed to anticipate or prevent an attempted violent coup of the U.S. government that would have likely resulted in direct body violence against serving U.S. politicians at the VERY least. I am not sure the FBI could have failed at anything more basic to what they do.
Not a corporate spying waste if you call it Meta now.
TIL I'm a violent extremist.
Man I love having to vote for people who label me a violent extremist. 10/10 government right there.
i found some symbols that represent the real domestic terrorists
- https://www.complex.com/life/a/stephen-ruiz/dictionary-of-white-supermacist-slang-symbols
- https://www.indy100.com/news/symbols-white-supremacy-swastika-facism
- https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/extremism-disinformation/2023/06/13/directory-of-300-hate-symbols-a-new-tool-for-identifying-extremism/
You forgot to include the symbols of the largest domestic terrorist group around.
lmao good looking out
Bookmarking this. Thank you.
To be fair, Senate Bill #4255:
To authorize dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the Federal Government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism.
They call out white nationalists quite a bit in the domestic terrorism bills.
Yet, noticeably absent from the symbols guide was the branding of the far-right extremist Proud Boys which has known connections to Trump, FBI agents and local law enforcement all over the country.
Yeah I wonder exactly where the source of truth database is on categorizing the extremist groups on either side.
Don't cherry pick. That's exactly the half-assed fact- hecking that this sort of sociopolitical theater from any gov't depends on.
What does antifa have to do with anarchy? I remember first seeing the symbol at Major League Soccer matches in Seattle in 2009. Lots of Amazon employees of liberal, but somewhat mainstream democratic POVs often raised the symbol. I thought it was just folks that hated racism and fascism,but not necessarily anarchist or socialist.
Anarchy as a label and the anarchy symbol are so diversely used it's hard to say what they definitely mean. When I was young I first encountered it as a music symbol and it meant rebel to me or anti-Reagan. I've met and talked to anarchist who say there shouldn't be any form of government at all to people who want a commune-type government to people who want to keep the existing government but want it to be extremely laissez faire. A lot of different people use the label and symbol and claim it for themselves.
Reminds me of Anonymous, the hacker group that once seemed to have some kind of meaning, until everyone realized anyone and everyone was using the label for some of the dumbest movements.
"Treyarch. You believe you have gotten away with anti-consumer behavior by nerfing the dual shotguns in the latest Call of Duty patch. But Anonymous, the very members of your playerbase, have been watching."
Isn't F.B.I. supposed to be called called Meta now?
Federal Bureau of Covering Your Own Ass
Failure Bureau of Insurrection
Ladies, Gentlemen, and Enbies, we are domestic terrorists
the day i woke up terry
Just don’t act too froggy up in there
The F stands for Fascist
lol, the fact they know some of the imagery was directly opposed to Nazis and still posted this. smh
does this get me out of jury duty?
If you ever want to get out of jury duty just tell them you believe in jury nullification and they'll dismiss you immediately. I'd ask you to consider serving because you could be the only voice of reason on the jury.
All cops are bastards, and I believe a black cat absolutely will sabotage this system when the time is right.
Fuck you, FBI. We the American people have got your number too, there are a lot more of us and we know what you look like even when trying to blend in.
You'll drop some of us, but we'll catch you.
Lol if you think the average American will stand up against oppression, it would mean they need to get up off the couch. Nevermind that as long as the TV news tells them everything is fine, they'll agree.
I cannot do anything about it but hope. I suspect it'll be a network effect, where once some people start going through the motions, others may follow.
Admittedly a bad example, but we saw the edge of this in hysterical form with the covid toilet paper fiasco. Should things get truly bad enough, not even the news systems will constrain us.
while the average American might not, there are still 333m people.
1% of those people resisting is 3m people. that's more than enough to cause a headache
This has always been the case with stuff like cointelpro. The FBI's job isn't really to solve crimes but to crack down on things that the powers that be don't like. The FBI and similar organizations need more public oversight and the definitions of terrorism need to be restricted and narrowly defined.
Because businesses will see disrupting like a ceo as "terrorism" etc. The pipeline protests were treated this way.
This is fucked up
So, Trump is now a violent extremist?
Yea, that checks out.
Always has been.
I can't quote Bruce Lee anymore? Be like H2O and evade police, as he is famously known to say.
Of course the number 1 news source broke this story. I read that site everyday in my basement stronghold while wearing my special tin hat.
Fascism Better Investigate YOU.
Is there any proof these groups are anything more than LARPers
Abolish the FBI.
Well, they are. Not saying they're wrong. But they are.
This article is commie nonsense:
organization took seven months before they denounced their “Blue Lives Matter” supporters that killed several police officers and injured nearly two hundred more during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
None of that actually happened. The only people that died that day were either shot by Capital Police…or had heart attacks from having too much fun.
