+2 votes
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in Politics & Government ✌ by

Antifa has chosen to use the anarchist symbol on its flag... an 'A' inside a hole. Oh, the irony.

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4 Answers

+2 votes
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Oh, wait...I just "got" it! I was going to ask you what the irony was...but just in time, I went to Wikip and learned this about Antifa..."...a conglomeration of autonomous, self-styled anti-fascist militant groups in the United States. The principal feature of antifa groups is their opposition to fascism through the use of direct action. They engage in militant protest tactics, which has included property damage and physical violence They tend to be anti-capitalist and they are predominantly far-left and militant left, which includes anarchistscommunists and socialists. Their stated focus is on fighting far-right and white supremacist ideologies directly, rather than politically."

(Sigh) prolly everybody but me already knew about them...I also read they have their origins in an antifascist movement in Germany, circa 1932? 

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Yes, Virginia, that's correct, but much of their membership came from the anarchist movement that predated WW1, and in fact was the proximate cause of WW1 breaking out.

Here is another present-day symbol of Antifa:

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Hmmm...back to their "A" inside the circle/hole...:D ...don't they get it? I am slow, and even I eventually got it... :D

Tink, when I started reading about our economic woes a year ago, some of the writers who impressed me were saying that there was not much "push-back" from the streets, relative to the privations endured by the middle classes. Their point being, there was time to re-work the situation without a descent into violence...as FDR did with the New Deal, getting the extreme Left movements calmed down. (Wasn't it mostly left-wing at that time?)

But these antifa folks seem kinda violent, their focus on "direct action." My Q for you is: do you feel these folks and their extreme ilk both right and left, are they becoming so numerous they could take us into anarchy anytime soon? (Impossible Q, of course...no way to predict that...you may with to respond rhetorically or something...;)  :sideways:)

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No, Virginia, they don't seem to get it, but what can you expect of people who are "pro-feminist", "animal-friendly", "queer-positive", but will beat you with clubs if they don't approve of your thoughts, good "anti-fascists" that they are?  :ermm:

And no, I don't think we are anywhere near the crisis we were in during the Great Depression, much less what was going on in Germany, so I don't think we are going to see millions of political thugs on the streets anytime soon.

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I hope that is accurate there, O'Tink, it's what I am counting on...but some of this stuff is just really getting bizarre...post modern worldview? Now the antifas?

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Virginia, I think the post-modern worldview and other claptrap is little more than intellectual laziness, an inability to come to realistic grips with the real problems we face.

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Tink I am not sure that what we are seeing is actually intellectual laziness; I am concerned the "inability to come to grips) might be just that, an authentic inability...

I don't know much about that kind of inability, not sure whether the ability can be taught, or cultivated through instruction. But a couple of weeks ago I was Googling Evergreen College and Bret Weinstein, just to see what is going on now, and where he is, what has happened to Weinstein.

And it was not good; Weinstein seems to think it is possible that we (the USA) might have to go through a time of living with this post-modern worldview, because the SJW (I am not sure what the W stands for but SJ is social justice)...anyway, he indicates these folks are now entering the mainstream, sitting on juries and in responsible public service positions. 

Apparently they (the SJ's) are trying to get rid of science! Kninjanin mentioned that (the science) also...

So, Weinstein is suggesting we could see science disappear from the universities, then the university system could collapse under this weight of SJ...then and only then somehow reason and Enlightenment values re-enter...Weinstein has been traumatized, he might perceive them as more powerful than they actually are...but...?

Because of the strange happenings I am also seeing in my own life, again I hope you are correct but I am not sure we can count on being able to dismiss these nutsos as claptrap and intellectual laziness...

Respond if you wish, do you have concrete information to support your optimism? Has someone looked at the numbers, how many people still operating with some kind of rational touchstone?

Added later: I just saw Freeranger's post, below - I think I recall he was in Vietnam, which puts him in the same era as Rooster and me...do look at his post, see what you think?

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Well, Virginia, the reason I'm not pessimistic is because of look what it took for Nazism to arise in Germany:

1. Loss of a world war, with over two million soldiers killed out of a total national population of about 60 million. (about 13% of all German soldiers dead, and many more wounded, some permanently disabled)

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_germany

2. Abdication overnight of the Kaiser and the Kings of several German states.

3. Hyperinflation of the early 20s. When finally stabilized in Nov, 1923, a billion inflated marks became equal to one new "Rentenmark", wiping out any bank savings people may have had.

4. The Great Depression, whose unemployment rate in Germany was even worse than in the US.

And still, the Nazis had to connive and cheat to acquire absolute power.

We are nowhere near that point yet.

And I think Weinstein is being unduly pessimistic about science disappearing from universities. Yes, perhaps in places like Evergreen, where many (most?) of the 'students' are too unqualified, too unprepared, too lazy and too undisciplined to study rigorous subjects like science or mathematics, or even proper history. But this would not be the case in good (i.e., even modestly selective) colleges and universities. Without science, i-phones couldn't function, and, oh my goodness, the lefty students couldn't live without their i-phones!  :D

+2 votes
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I have to agree with Tink on this. To be honest? I haven't heard one good thing come from this group. Violence isn't going to change things but only make it worse. Little do they know but Antifa is slowly destroying the Democratic party and making the "Left" look even worse than it already is.

The flag is proper for them as that's what they act and look like. Peaceful protests do a lot more good than these Fascist type protests.

Anarchy will just plunge this country into it's death throes and we'll all be in a lawless civil war in time.

They do remind of old pictures sometimes when I see them on TV.


+3 votes
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You would think that, after all of the worlds suffering throughout Europe and North America, and all man's war dead since WWI, we would have understood how a boil or...an infection left un-lanced or untreated, spreads across a body.  It's an infection and, I always find myself wondering who the real players are....the driving force.....the heavies, anarchist board members....are they the little people united?....wealthy industrialists/Bilderbergers waging unrest to line their pockets with money from the products they peddle? 

I sit back and wonder if, when, and where, the next kristallnacht occurs, kicking off the next world conflagaration. 

When will they ever learn......when will they ever.....learn?

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Freeranger...your post reflects a growing concern of my own...political and social "irregularities" I assumed were small and confined to a few rogue corporations or other aberrant movements, apparently more systemic than I realized...

The small town where I now live, set off in the prairies with only 1700 population, we have crime every night! Robberies, home invasions, auto theft, often drug related - although the crime is generally NOT violent. But I grew up in this area, and all this would have been unthinkable - until recently.

In my own life, I am doing what I can to help stabilize things; at age 73 I try to help keep the old folks going, because we are the ones to remember a more rational time, post WWII. We have the wisdom, the life experience for peace-making...

Anyway, how serious are you with your comments? Are you truly concerned that now, the USA might not be as stable as we/I have always assumed?

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If I were to get too serious with myself, I would stay up much later and probably have few friends due to frequent rants---ha.  Okay, maybe not that bad, but as a student of history I read the intel from any number of places----what's going on at home and in the world and draw certain mental circles.  It doesn't make me right, only personally at peace that I have attempted to sate both my suspicions as well as my curiosity. 

On the one part, I watch the rise of the masked domestic terror of Antifa, other emboldened anarchists, and the blatant attempt by students on college campuses to shut down free speech, most if not all of it occuring in urban centers.  2017...Sweden is reported to be ruminating a seat at NATO, and Putin immediately proclaiming he'd eliminate the military threat if they did.  An American Embassy in Jerusalem....masses of muslims.....a massive horde flowing out of the Middle East targeting Europe and Scandinavia.  Muqtada al sadr, Iranian puppet surprisingly elected in Iraq.  And then, the troubling uptick in domestic shootings at malls, schools, and churches here in our country.  The call to remove the 2nd Amendment.  They all point to both national and international unrest and instability due to action and reaction.  Much of it is not new of course----this unrest, particularly when you look at late 19th century history.  I may be wrong, but among my suspicions are those that my inner voice whispers to me---- the building up of unrest, usually a prerequisite to some much larger calamity.  I have no idea where or when.  I would be a very rich man if I could predict that but......I feel like I am watching the slow formation of a very dark cloud on our horizon here in the U.S.  By extension, imagine civic unrest to a point where, it overwhelms local law enforcement.  The next natural extension are National Guard troops, which then really piss off the preppers and before you know it, a ground swell of involvement from all quarters enters the fray.  Could that be a moment when another world power had been waiting in the wings to invade?  I mean, when you think of it....it's been over 200 years since the last one, and Americans, I feel, have become a little too comfortable in the thought that, that can't happen here.

Anyway, this is what happens when I begin to let my mind wander.  I'm concerned about certain undercurrents in the country right now, who the wealthy power brokers are, and what may be in the offing down the road.

Should I go out a buy myself a truck from the '60's to protect myself from an EMP attack that will wipe out all modern electronic vehicles?  What about setting up that Ham Radio station should the powers take over all com?  Thinking waaaay outside the box some would say, and that it will never happen.  I mean, we're Americans.....we believe in freedom.  Right?  Ha.....anyway, my poor pondering's for a Friday night.

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Freeranger, I just want to thank you for your candid comments...for me, for the first time ever in my (long) life, I do have concerns about the stability of the USA. I have always appreciated living in a country where the fringe elements can have their say, no matter how "octopus-walker" - far out they may be.

But now I wonder if there is too much way-out, definitely exploitive/plundering, and potentially violent groundswell entering the mainstream, extreme right AND left wing, and no one really has a handle on what to do about it...while the political parties jockey for power and is Rome burning?

+1 vote
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They are active in the Serbian universities. Their description is correct.  They were blocking some colleges in the past ten years. They were fighting for free high education. 

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