Charlottesville and Antifa

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, yeah, one group started it maybe.

And then every Neo-Nazi, Klansman, and otherwise white supremacist around decided to pile on.

Because fuck the democratic will of a duly-elected town council.

[phantom000]

One question i would ask the protestors is 'what exactly are you trying to achieve?' it's not like taking the statues down is going to make the war not happen. Even if you take down every statue and burn every confederate flag its not going to make those people come back to life.

So here is some of my arguments as to why you would want to take down confederate memorials.

"We don't want to glorify white supremacists"

This seems kind of hypocritical when you have monuments to Jefferson and Jackson who were very much American fascists given their attitude towards the native Americans. Jackson is to date the only president to overturn, or ignore rather, a supreme court decision. To praise them while condemning the likes of Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson seems like northern hypocrisy since they represent the other side of American fascism.

"We don't want a rallying point for neo-nazis"

This is an over simplification, given that Washington, Adams and Jefferson all owned slaves and that before the war Thomas Jackson was teaching blacks to read and write despite it being illegal in Virginia at the time. But people have a habit of inventing their own symbols. The swastika actually comes from India but that did not stop the Nazi party.

[TGLS]

"We don't want a rallying point for neo-nazis"

This is an over simplification, given that Washington, Adams and Jefferson all owned slaves and that before the war Thomas Jackson was teaching blacks to read and write despite it being illegal in Virginia at the time. But people have a habit of inventing their own symbols. The swastika actually comes from India but that did not stop the Nazi party.

Add that taking statues down has become a rallying point in its own right, that choice becomes sillier.

[The Romulan Republic]

There is a very simple reason for it:

Because it is illogical and inflammatory to have on public land, statues honoring traitors to the country. All the more so when their treason was committed in the name of rejecting an election they fairly lost, and maintaining racial slavery.

If someone wants to have a Confederate statue on their private property, I'll think less of them for it, but I won't demand that it be taken down. If they want to keep it in a museum (not to glorify it but as an artifact of purely historical value), I can accept that too.

But monuments to traitors on public land? No. Not ever.

[Admiral X]

My main reason for wanting them to come down (or at least off of public land) has to do with the obvious intent that there was in putting them up. It was never about honoring these figures so much as the various state and local governments producing tangible, well-visible symbols of the mentality they stood for, which was the same mentality that went into passing Jim Crow laws, and in the resistance to the Civil Rights Movement, which was when these places felt the sudden urge to put up all these statues and start flying the Virginia battle flag from as many government buildings as possible.

[LittleRaven]

Antifa strikes again.

Their faces hidden behind black bandannas and hoodies, about 100 anarchists and antifa— “anti-fascist” — members barreled into a protest Sunday afternoon in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.

Jumping over plastic and concrete barriers, the group melted into a larger crowd of around 2,000 that had marched peacefully throughout the sunny afternoon for a “Rally Against Hate” gathering.

Shortly after, violence began to flare. A pepper-spray-wielding Trump supporter was smacked to the ground with homemade shields. Another was attacked by five black-clad antifa members, each windmilling kicks and punches into a man desperately trying to protect himself. A conservative group leader retreated for safety behind a line of riot police as marchers chucked water bottles, shot off pepper spray and screamed, “Fascist go home!”

Kudos to the people that peacefully protested.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I don't see anything wrong with taking down a pepper-spray-wielding assailant. The other case is more debatable.

That said, I heard a report on NPR today about a bunch of antifa members who converged on a right-winger that tripped during a protest. He was not, as far as I can tell form the reports, bearing a Nazi regalia or doing any Nazi stuff. That is making me think.

I will still say, Antifa comes to events with their hands, their sticks, and maybe some pepper spray. The Nazis come with flames and steel.

[LittleRaven]

I will still say, Antifa comes to events with their hands, their sticks, and maybe some pepper spray. The Nazis come with flames and steel.

But there were no Nazis at Berkeley.

[Admiral X]

Everyone to the right of antifa are nazis.

Anyway, this seems appropriate to the topic at hand:

youtu.be/HLNhPMQnWu4

[GandALF]

Even the Onion is taking shots at antifa now: http://www.theonion.com/article/antifa- ... azi--56783

"Antifa" is just a name. The "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" is still opposed by both the Democratic and Republican parties regardless of what Kim Jong-Un calls himself.