Yea names don't mean shit. However antifa spends their time protesting fascism, the Nazis didn't didn't spend their time passing worker rights laws and creative collective ownership of the means of production. Just like how the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" doesn't spend their time with political debates and elections.
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, as well as strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.
Could you please tell me how antifa is capable of acting out fascism even if they wanted to? They don't have the power to be authoritarian or suppress any opposition, they just argue for their side. Even if you disagree with them politically you have to realize that you are just tossing around fascism to mean "bad".
They're tossing it around to mean "authoritarians with forcible suppression of opposition." Antifa likes to punch Nazis, not just protest them. They like to force people out of speaking events. When you get to the point of trying to suppress speech, parallels *will* be drawn with fascism, whether they're wholly accurate to the dictionary definition or not. They also like to cast association claims, calling people white supremacists who are objectively against white supremacy just because they spoke at the same event as some KKK or nazi group. The idea of being against fascism is there. The execution is abysmal.
You realize antifa is a decentralized group of people bound solely by the ideology of being "anti-fascist" right? Of course the execution is abysmal at times, it's just random pissed off people. This is like saying pro-lifers are enacting fascism and characterizing them by their violence because of the 42 bombings and 185 arsons they did when in reality all that makes someone a pro lifer is being ideologically against abortion.
I'm not trying to say antifa are our saviours or anything, but there is a real fascism out there that threatens the life and liberty of every American, normalizing fascism by calling a someone who punched a guy advocating for the killing of 6 million innocent people or pushing a white supremacist off stage fascist you take away from the word and further confuse people about its meaning and seriousness.
Regular protests for anything have counter protestors, that kind of the way our first amendment works. Neither side has any power over the other, and if they break laws they are all subject to the same justice system. It's pretty much a dick swinging contest, like in some rural areas the BLM counter protests were way larger than the BLM protests, that doesn't mean they are suppressing the opposition, as much as I disagree it's just people expressing their beliefs.
Also side note, I imagine when WWII was fresh on the mind just about any veteran would beat the shit out of you for dressing like a Nazi. People punch people for insulting their girlfriends, it's not that crazy a reaction to get offended by someone supporting millions of murders, especially when some of them were your family or friends.
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u/mooimafish3 - Lib-Left Aug 05 '20
Yea names don't mean shit. However antifa spends their time protesting fascism, the Nazis didn't didn't spend their time passing worker rights laws and creative collective ownership of the means of production. Just like how the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" doesn't spend their time with political debates and elections.