#with fascists and groups like white supremacy groups. who absolutely agree with the idea of telling authors of

[desudog-gone]

Idk how to tell you this but because you have "proshippers kill yourselves" in your description, this is about you. Just letting you know.

Being on the internet feels like

Me to my friend: what if 2 guys were on the moon and one killed the other with a rock.

Friend: that's fuuuuckkkedddd lol

Me: yeah it's pretty crazy

Friend: what if it was dramatic and cool

Me: what if they were lovers

Friend: omg loool that'd be crazy

Me: what if the world was made of puddi-

Some random person: you people are fucked in the head. FUCKED. Don't you know real people DIE? I can't belive you support killing astronauts. You're glorifying something that could happen to ANYONE. What if someone uses the astronauts killing eachother to make death LEGAL? WHAT IF THAT HAPPENED? You're responsible for every person who has ever died and you're a sicko I bet you are secretly a serial killer because you think murder can even BE cool. And don't even get me started on your little pudding fantasy! You hate people allergic to pudding so bad. I bet you have a pudding world fetish. You don't deserve to fucking live you astronaut killing freakazoid!

Guy who's the reincarnation of Cain: I agree. I keep saying we can't talk about space and look and behold! Trust me we must make stricter laws against letting these spaceheads speaking so freely. /wearing a shirt that says 'let's kill eachother with rocks/

The random guy: yeah we have to team up to make sure they're shut down!

Me: how could you even be able to that

Cain2: dont say able

[iteratedextras]

You might win more Internet arguments if you didn't speak for other people and tell them what they believe whenever the topic of white supremacy is brought up rather than genuinely attempting to engage with their theory. Like you see to have a real bee in your bonnet about it and appear wounded by the assertion that whiteness, i.e. prioritising and promoting white people and subtly dismissing and destroying non-white people culture, is an ideology that many (tho not all) white people subscribe to - rather than writing paragraphs, I'd ask you to reflect and consider: why is this? Why do I react in this way? Why does this upset me? After you've reflected, I would then consider engaging with some level of legitimacy and reading with empathy. Maybe you'll still be a defensive racist who strawmans arguments (sorry dude but this is exactly who you are), but part of me hopes the person reading this is capable of critical reflection.

Another genuine recommendation, since I see you've been debating about Ukraine too, I think Timothy Snyder's Ukraine lecture series is excellent, provides a very thorough historical background which helps contextualise the current war.

Attempting a bogus psychoanalysis on me is certainly an assertion of superiority on your part - but the exact same psychoanalysis can be applied to those who are emotionally wounded by white people "taking up space," to use their own lingo.

How can we resolve this stalemate?

It's fairly simple. (I'm going to bold some things because I know some Tumblr users have problems reading.)

If you want to convince me, you must approach me as a peer, and that means providing evidence that I can verify from the outside that your theories work.

I want you to step back and do some critical self-reflection.

Your whole psychoanalysis is based on the logic of "whiteness" theory, including the idea of "defensive racists," which is a motive that whiteness theorists believe is a "real" thing driving hostility to their practices.

I think there's a much better explanation.

It's actually quite normal to be offended over being materially harmed for no good reason. This is normal for people of any race.

The material result of the larger cluster that is "whiteness" theory, "white privilege" theory, and similar left-wing race-first approaches is attempting to deny people health treatment specifically and explicitly on the basis of their race, by grouping people into "whites" and "BIPOC" ('everyone else').

This does not even rise to the epistemic standards of conventional racists, who typically group people into at least five "races."

When you support these ideologies, you are demanding to do "race conscious" policy, and there is absolutely no reason that I shouldn't hold you to the strict epistemic standards used against biological race realists, because your potential failures could be just as bad as theirs, much as Communist death counts are not so different from Fascist death counts.

The reason people don't like you, and the reason I don't like you, is because...

You want to do open, explicit racial discrimination. (This is what "race conscious" policy means.)

...with no pre-agreed limit where you'll agree, "Okay, we tried, discriminating against you isn't working to improve things for underrepresented minorities. We'll stop discriminating against you now."

...without doing the hard work to show that this will actually close the race gaps, so that the "corrective" racial discrimination will end in the future.

That's why I don't like you. That's why other people don't like you.

When we criticize the lack of evidence to justify "corrective" racial discrimination by social race realists, it's criticized as "white" epistemics, which is of course, like the idea of "Jewish science," cult material.

That is of course, a very threatening stance to take, even if it isn't that deadly yet. Obviously if you see such an authoritarian ideology where it both 1) doesn't have any proof it can get results, and 2) doesn't have a means to give up if it doesn't get results, then the smart thing to do is to shut it down early.

[jyndor]

I swear, WHY are these people harassing MINORS. The atla fandom is mostly adults at this point, that they're SEARCHING KIDS OUT is just so absolutely disgusting. Those kids got to miss the initial ship wars, let them go through 2020 in peace.

Anon I feel you. Full disclosure, I have had a bottle of wine and spent four hours talking to my family on zoom so I’m heated. Okay, here we go. Let me say this. I am 29 and neurodivergent/ADHD so I prefer explicitly-stated social rules of engagement. Like I don’t always pick up on social cues and that has gotten me into interpersonal conflicts in the past with my peers.

BUT. I am 29 so I also understand that I am in a different place than I was when I was 15 or 12 or 17. I have different needs, different expectations, from those who interact with me than I did when I was a kid. Fuck, I know how it might have felt back 15 years ago to hear adults say “she’s a kid, she doesn’t know what she needs, her brain isn’t fully developed and she can’t legally consent” yeah that pissed me off and in some ways it wasn’t true but with regard to consent it was. Of course it was. But what I’m hearing from these minors, these teenagers who I don’t know if they’re 12 or 17, but they’re not asking to be treated like adults - they’re asking to be treated with respect.

Now all of what I am about to say is not me excusing this behavior, but analyzing why it happens. And yes, I am about to say that all of these anons are white I can smell the entitlement in the air.

I know why these fools are targeting minors and poc zutara shippers. I know why. You know why. We all know. They are EASY fucking targets. It’s sick, picking on kids. Absolutely sick. Harassment, predatory. And they are also acting in bad faith - if they were working in good faith, they would come off anon and say, “hey x I truly believe that zutara is harmful and I am confused as to why a poc would be cool with something that other poc say is harmful to them, can we have a discourse?” now granted, this is fucked up and essentialist garbage, and no one is entitled to discourse~ with random people on social media.

Now I want to make something clear before I get to my next bit: the zutara fandom is not the r*ylo fandom. First off, the zutara fandom has experienced hateful shit from TPTB since early on in fandom; we don’t have a lot of support from the creators. In fact, the creators have been outwardly misogynistic and hostile to us. Okay, Dante Basco and some of the writers MIGHT ship zutara but that’s like, not institutional support. And also there is a history of SOME fan creations being really fucking racist. That shit, the “dark enemies hate sex” shit that zutara is stereotyped as being about, is almost completely purged from fandom. Not that it doesn’t exist still. And not that it shouldn’t be corrected and that we shouldn’t try to grow as a fandom. Have I seen shitty politics from zutara shippers? Yes. And I cringe every time, but like I don’t expect every person to agree with my politics. We have grown so much as a fandom - and you can tell by the fan creations. Fanworks are not about non-consensual domination anymore (like they often were in the early days of atla), they are about respect and reconciliation. And they have been for YEARS, like I’m talking s2 onward, when zutara took off. *sips wine*

‘cause here’s the thing. Fandoms are groups of people. People, as a result of centuries-old imperialist/racist constructs, are racist. We have to actively unlearn so fucking much. And any fandom is going to have its shitty elements. This is not something non-zutara shippers are exempt from. Actually, the zutara fandom has done a lot of work to make the fandom safe for poc and minors over the years and I am so proud of it. I have never seen that in a fandom. Ever. It’s not to say it’s perfect, of course not.

We did that on our own. Not because kataangers or sokka/zuko shippers were like WTF RACIST lol no because poc in the fandom were like, HEYYY before you write capture fic please learn about x, y and z, and the white parts of fandom were like, oh shit let’s get educated, this ship is about reconciliation and growth, let’s live up to that. I mean honestly from what I’ve seen from the larger atla fandom, which has a hard time dealing with the criticisms about why atla is racist (lol shocking that bryke appropriating cultures for their financial benefit would be considered racist but /s) could learn from the zutara fandom. js.

Honestly I assume most of these anons are just fuckin white asshole anti-zutara trolls who have never actually interacted with the zutara fandom. As a white person I do think that we white people have a certain level of entitlement to spaces that are not ours. Like, I don’t see poc who have had to be in more collectivist or communal settings as a result of colonialism and white supremacy invading spaces they don’t belong to in the same way that white people do. This is a LEARNED behavior, not an essence or in our DNA. Like, many white people get pissy about not being allowed by social contract to say certain slurs, but like... A) it’s not a legally enforced LAW lmfao and B) those white people only get annoyed when they realize they aren’t allowed to say it. That’s an extreme example, but I think it’s emblematic of a larger problem - because of colonialist ideology, white people feel entitled to ALL spaces and ALL things. We get annoyed when things don’t work how we feel they should. I grew up expecting things to change when my social class put pressure on those things, so it is always going to be somewhat jarring for me to know that that isn’t the case for marginalized communities.

I know some of my friends who are black have said things like, “lol cait why are you so shocked and appalled that x is the way it is, that’s how it always has been.” Not always, and not all of my friends, but like it happens. In those instances it’s like, I see something happen that is racist or fucked up, and they’re like... yeah. Obviously. But for someone who is not exposed to something, they might find it hard to swallow. When it comes to fascists and capitalists, I don’t have any sympathy left to offer - just get fucking educated or have a fist to the nose. But ships are not at that level. And like people work with political bubbles, where they often get isolated to what discourse is happening in other bubbles, fandoms and subfandoms (like ship fandoms) also exist in bubbles. (I am not saying that fascists/capitalists are soul searching in their bubbles, but they do exist in clear bubbles on and offline and that is terrifying to me; their discourse cannot be GOOD and I hate not knowing what they are plotting).

Example. I don’t interact with r*ylo unless it interacts with ME, and what I see, I don’t like. (let me be clear, I am not comparing zutara with r*ylo because they are NOT equivalent; I would not be a zutara shipper if I thought they were similar). But I don’t go into shipper tags and harass children who support r*ylo. I hate it, I really do it fucking sends me up a wall, but I only ever interact with anti-r*ylo content. and in that way, I don’t know what discourse the r*ylo fandom is doing to correct its horseshit. I only know what I see, and I see r*ylo shippers being toxic and racist.

So I hate fucking r*ylo but you don’t see me going out of my way to interact with r*ylos about their ship. I can’t begin to tell you how much I am ANTI-r*ylo. It is antithetical to everything I believe. But again, I am not going into the tags, searching for r*ylos to harass. Maybe the r*ylo fandom is working on its toxic shit, maybe it isn’t. I have no idea, and I am not going to harass r*ylos about it in their inboxes unless they come into my inbox and harass me. And by the way, even then I am not going to have private conversations with shitty people - that’s all gonna be public, bitch.

Wow... IDK if this is coherent because like I said, wine. At best, these anons are racist white people who think that they are helping the anti-racist cause by attacking people who they think are pushing racist narratives... but are not challenging their implicit biases and so are picking on the most vulnerable people, who because of essentialist garbage, they feel like are traitors of the Cause or whatever, and also are minors so they assume are incapable of fighting back.

It’s racism, my friend. I’m drunk, but it’s racism. Hopefully I don’t have much to edit in this tomorrow morning lmfao. Please tell me if anything doesn’t make sense.

[moonwalkertrance]

‘Nazis go home!’ Fights break out at Michigan State as protesters, white supremacists converge for Richard Spencer speech

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Fights broke out between white supremacists and protesters Monday as anti-fascist activists, students and community members converged in and around Michigan State University to counter a speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer.

Hours before the speech began, police blocked access to the venue as protesters, including some masked antifascists, gathered outside and hundreds marched toward the venue shouting, “Nazis go home!”

As some of Spencer’s supporters and people planning to attend the speech arrived on campus, masked protesters shouted obscenities at white supremacists and at police. A group of white nationalists marching down the road toward the speech venue — Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education — were blocked by protesters. Shouts turned to punches thrown at protesters, but the group was forced by protesters away from the pavilion where Spencer later spoke.

More law enforcement officers arrived, lining both sides of the road leading into the venue, snapping cuffs on people and restoring calm.

Law enforcement officers line the road toward the building where Richard Spencer was expected to speak Monday.

But as others arrived to attend the speech, which was delayed past its planned 4:30 p.m. start time, a mob of protesters swarmed around them. A circle of law enforcement officers protected those wishing to go in, but two were pushed to the ground. Another man wanting to attend the event was pelted with sticks, dirt and cans by protesters.

Two were blocked from entering, despite the police escort. They bowed as they retreated, to jeers from the crowd.

The Detroit Free Press showed video of protesters screaming at police to a steady drumbeat, one kicking the bicycle of an officer, screaming, “F—ing Nazi cops!”

Capt. Doug Monette, a spokesman for the MSU police department, said two dozen arrests were made, ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. He said there were some weapons charges, as well as charges of hindering and obstructing, but that it was too soon to confirm individual people involved.

“What happened outside was really worrisome and heinous,” Spencer said Monday evening. “That was an attempt to use violence to prevent people from attending a speech that was peaceful.”

He said more than 150 tickets had been distributed, but many were not able to get through the chaos outside. “In terms of suppressing attendance, they really achieved that.”

But he was able to deliver a speech, albeit curtailed, he said, and there was a good question-and-answer session. Samantha Turner, a Michigan State sophomore from Detroit who attended the protest with her parents, said, “I hope to send the message that we’re just not going to do whatever they want and step all over us. I feel like showing a presence out here today lets them know that we do indeed care.”

Omar Karim, an MSU student and member of the local antifascist group, Solidarity & Defense, said he’s proud of the protesters. “These are my friends and family and co-workers, my brothers and sisters, people I get coffee with. These are people who I walk my dog with. This is my community. And my community in here in our home, representing our home, fighting against fascist ideology.”

Spencer’s National Policy Institute has sought to hold events on college campuses across the country. But several university presidents rejected such requests after he led a torchlight march of people shouting slurs at the University of Virginia in August. The next day, at a rally in Charlottesville, violent clashes with counterprotesters broke out, leaving one dead and dozens injured.

Days later, MSU officials denied Spencer’s request to speak at the public university, citing concerns about safety. But in January, after settling a lawsuit brought by a supporter, the school agreed to allow an event on campus. “Michigan State is wholly dedicated to freedom of speech, not just as a public institution, but as an institution of higher education, ” university officials explained in a public statement in January. “Here, ideas — not people — are meant to clash and to be evaluated based on their merits.”

Spencer’s speech comes at a time when tensions are raw over issues of race and politics and national identity, over freedom of speech and the cultural leanings of academia. In the days before Spencer spoke at the University of Florida, the governor declared a state of emergency. At MSU, Spencer arrived on a campus in turmoil over a sexual abuse scandal that forced the ouster of the university’s longtime president and sparked numerous investigations and lawsuits.

On Monday morning, Spencer said it is “very, very sad,” that they have to sue, or threaten to sue, universities simply for the right to engage in debate in a public forum. “The obstacles just keep rising — it’s very difficult to continue,” he said. “But we have to … as opposition mounts, we know that we’re making more and more of an impact.”

He said he knew antifascists would be there.  “They present a major problem for police.”

The MSU campus is on spring break this week, which is not a coincidence. The timing and the venue of the speech were chosen to minimize the risk of violence and disruption to campus, according to university officials.

The Pavilion for Agriculture is a small arena well south of the campus’s developed core. Beyond it is farmland used primarily for research.

Still, protesters gathered in the bright but chilly air, a coalition of students, faculty and residents called Stop Spencer at MSU, to march on the pavilion.

Josh Lown, a protest organizer and graduate student at Michigan State, said midday Monday that they were hoping to avoid violence while disrupting Spencer’s appearance as much as possible. He said they want to “make Richard Spencer and his motley crew know that they’re not welcome here. We’re a very loving and diverse community, and we don’t want this speech to turn into normalcy.”

The group wrote on social media that they must “defend against racist and fascist attacks on every campus and in every community” and “oppose the fascists, the racists, and the university administration, the cops and ICE and the government who are complicit in these attacks and the enemies of our communities.”

They had posted an image on social media playing off the university’s “Spartans will…” campaign, showing a still from a video of a man punching Spencer, with a Spartan helmet imposed on the image.

Well north of the pavilion, a broad coalition of organizations including the city of East Lansing, the undergraduate and graduate student governments, MSU’s College Democrats, College Republicans, the local chapter of Black Lives Matter, and an interfaith clergy group are collaborating on a full day of activities in an effort to ignore Spencer.

Ashley Fuente, president of the Council of Graduate Students, will first spend two hours with about 30 volunteers, packing food for Meals on Wheels. “I think the way the community has come together has been absolutely incredible,” Fuente said of the Spartan Day of Love & Solidarity.

It was important to unite both the university and the larger community for this, said Aaron Stephens, an MSU senior who is a member of the East Lansing City Council. He said that having all the major political groups on campus — Democrats, Republicans and libertarians — join together signals that “If you believe in white supremacy, you don’t disagree with me politically, you disagree with me morally. Even if we disagree on issues, we agree everyone is equal and we deserve to be treated as such.”

The student government is also sponsoring a free screening of “Black Panther” later in the evening, and bought out a 270-seat theater to accommodate the attendees.

At the All Saints Episcopal Church north of campus, the Rev. Kit Carson, the church’s rector, admitted she’s “a little bit overwhelmed” by the magnitude of the response to the celebration of diversity they plan to host Monday afternoon: More than 1,000 people RSVP’d online for the fair.

“This is an opportunity to bring the community together, reaffirm our shared values of tolerance, love and diversity and really try to ignore what’s going on at the pavilion as much as we can,” Carson said.

“Absolutely people need to say hate is bad and probably need to say it to his face. That’s not our role here today,” Carson said. “The only thing that concerns me about the antifascists and the counterprotesters is that sometimes that devolves into hate, too, when the two groups get face-to-face. When that happens, then basically you’ve bought into Spencer’s narrative.”

Spokesmen for the university deferred questions to police and to the National Policy Institute, and sent a link to university statements from January.

On Friday, MSU’s interim president, John Engler, addressed the issue in an email to the community: “Nobody affiliated with Michigan State invited this small, hateful group, and I doubt they’ll find support. The remarkable accomplishments of our diverse community of scholars expose the fraudulence of their racist rhetoric every day.

“But they come here hoping to gain energy by provoking reaction to their taunts,” Engler continued. “If we take the bait — if we return their hate — it only supports the preposterous claims to victimhood that sustain their ideology. They court headlines. They crave confrontation, because without it, their message of hate falls on deaf ears.” He called on people to signal their opposition by ignoring the event and avoiding the area.

[creature-wizard]

You seem to have a pretty rosy view of the New Age movement, and I'm guessing it's because you really haven't dug very deep into it. You also don't seem to be interested in digging deeper and learning more about what's really going on in this movement, since you evidently ignored the link to my pinned post.

You appear to be unaware of just how far back all of this goes, and just how many shady groups and people were involved in its creation. For example, one guy who pushed the starseed/wanderer narrative, George Hunt Williamson, used to be buddies with American fascist William Dudley Pelley, and claimed that the swastika was a symbol used by advanced alien beings. Helena Blavatsky, who founded Theosophy, which New Age emerged from, basically said "yeah some races are inherently backwards and they're going to get wiped out, that's just how it is."

If you start digging, you'll find that this kind of stuff is just... all over. It was there from the very start, and it never went away.

Trying to assimilate POC into a white-created, white-led spiritual movement that has been distorting and misrepresenting their spiritual traditions from day one is white supremacy. Just because you've succeeded in assimilating POC, doesn't mean it stopped being white supremacist. Assimilating POC into white spiritualities is white supremacy.

Also, the very idea of a "next evolutionary level" is a myth rooted in the misconception that evolution has a goal, and that goal is producing "higher" and "better" lifeforms, when in reality evolution is something that happens in response to environmental pressures, and has no "goal." It's an absolute bullshit concept, and using it even in a rhetorical fashion validates it.

Also, human gene editing is a massively controversial subject, and one that is widely (and rightly) criticized, because who decides which genes are "superior"? Maybe there are some things we can easily agree are detrimental, like something that's going to kill a child before their third birthday, but there are people who would just as soon eliminate things like autism from the gene pool - not because being autistic is itself a problem, but because some people think it would be easier than accommodating autistic people in society.

As for where I'm getting the idea of a purging, it's all over if you look around. Sometimes you just have to listen closely, because it tends to be pretty heavily sugarcoated. Keep your eyes and ears open and you'll hear people talking about how the "regressive entities" will be "removed" or something. You'll hear them talking about how the "dracos" or the "globalists" (read: Jews, because David Icke's material and antisemitic conspiracy theories in general are pretty big with a lot of these people) will be "sent to another dimension." A few particularly bold people are claiming that various Democrats have already been put on trial in a military tribunal, and what we're seeing now are actually clones or body doubles.

You seem to be trying to dismiss the adrenochrome thing and other antisemitism stuff as mere coincidence - but if you do the research, you will find that it is very much not. David Icke was very open about getting his ideas from The Protocols of Zion, for example. He put it out there that Judaism was created by evil reptilian aliens, and basically claimed that Ashkenazi Jews (whom he claims aren't even real Jews) are extra susceptible to being possessed by these reptilian entities.

You also claim that my pointing out the adrenochrome/blood libel thing "harms authentic claims of antisemitism," which proves that you didn't even read the link I posted - which was written by actual Jewish people. You also apparently haven't done any research to find out how the adrenochrome conspiracy theory does, in fact, target actual Jewish people. I suggest doing this.

Seriously, you are arguing from a position of extreme ignorance here; what you're basically claiming comes down to "Well, I didn't see it happen - therefore it didn't happen!"

And I think we both know that isn't how anything works.

Hey folks, friendly reminder that:

The whole idea that the Earth is about to enter its "next evolutionary level" is rooted in Victorian-age eugenics.

The idea that people who accept New Age beliefs are having their DNA "upgraded" is fundamentally eugenicist.

The idea that starseeds are traveling to Earth to spread spiritual truth is a narrative inspired by the idea of white man's burden and the belief that sending missionaries to convert Indigenous people to Christianity is a good thing. (It's not; it's racist and genocidal.)

The idea that those who reject New Age beliefs will be "purged" is fundamentally a belief that genocide is a good thing.

New Agers are either ignorant or dishonest when they claim that ancient religions and holy texts support their beliefs. The information they cite is either fabricated, distorted, or taken out of context.

The ancient astronaut hypothesis is inherently racist, because its purpose is denying that ancient POC could have built anything on their own.

The New Age/starseed narrative is inherently antisemitic and has a large overlap with conspiracy theories QAnon believes in, including adrenochrome harvesting (a modern form of blood libel).

Please see my pinned post for more details.

[communistcountryclub]

Outrage at the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville and wanton attacks on peaceful students, clergy, and people of color at the hands of white supremacists kicked off nationwide protests against racist violence, which led to the cancellation of dozens of right-wing rallies and the fall of Confederate monuments from Durham to San Diego. There is much hope in the undeniable public support to resist the so-called alt-right. Yet confrontations at the University of California, Berkeley, have polarized activists on how best to oppose these movements of hate and bigotry.

On August 27, several thousand Bay Area students, teachers, and community members attended the “Rally Against Hate,” which was organized by an unprecedented coalition of over 100 campus, labor, interfaith, community justice, and socialist/anarchist groups. Despite the mostly peaceful character of the demonstration, the media focused overwhelmingly on a few instances of violent skirmishes, painting Berkeley as a hotbed of far-left extremism.

This emphasis plays into the hands of the far right by creating a public backlash against antifascist and social-justice movements. Within two weeks of Charlottesville, widespread revulsion at the images of torch-wielding white supremacists faded into a quagmire of moralistic debates about fighting Nazis. At best, Berkeley’s antifascist militancy is regarded by liberal pundits as a useful foil for the far right; at worst, it’s depicted as equivalent to fascists who, from Dylann Roof to James Alex Fields, have proven capable of cold-blooded murder.

It is absolutely crucial to understand what is going on in Berkeley—not only because of how the coverage of protests has been used to shift public opinion on antifascist actions, but also because the sequence of events from Berkeley to Charlottesville dramatically illustrates why this battle is emphatically not about free speech. This is about the ability to shape consensus in a time of rising mass anxiety and political extremism. The “power of framing,” as linguist George Lakoff puts it, is everything.

It is not antifascist resistance but the uncritical acceptance of manipulative framing by those who should know better that puts Berkeley and other campus communities at risk. If the specter of “antifa” becomes an excuse to justify the use of repression through state or extrajudicial means, then no college campus, marginalized community, or organized social movement of the left is safe from attacks from the alt-right and its fake-news machine.

The clashes between the alt-right and antifascist protesters at Berkeley cannot be taken out of the context of the climate of terror that has been brewing since white-nationalist and Nazi flyers began to appear at over 100 college campusesacross the country after the election of Donald Trump.

A letter circulated to Berkeley faculty by student activists in the wake of the dramatic shutdown of Milo Yiannopoulos’s speaking event on February 1 reveals the extent of the intimidation campaign waged against the campus community and the failure of administrators to address safety concerns. Berkeley students had seen the rise of white-nationalist recruitment on campus and witnessed the tactics employed by Yiannopoulos and his followers surrounding the shutdown of an event at UC Davis—which included violent provocation, stalking, manipulative lies in the press, and a perverse reenactment of the incident when Occupy student protesters were pepper-sprayed by police in 2011. With this in mind, students began writing letters to campus administration, faculty, and media voicing their opposition to the Berkeley event. In retaliation, far-right trolls sent intimidating messages and death threats. Students were doxxed (their personal information hacked and revealed on message boards) and stalked by alt-right activists who followed them on and off campus. Incidents were reported to top campus and UC administrators to no avail.

UC Berkeley graduate student and union steward Beezer de Martelly recounted:

When we began organizing publicly against Milo Yiannopoulos’s scheduled talk, we started receiving disturbing messages on our public Facebook event page warning us that if he were prevented from speaking, we should expect people to come with guns to shoot demonstrators. After publishing our Official Anti-Milo Digital Toolkit, several of the contributing women and non-binary femmes (myself included) were doxxed on numerous men’s rights and misogynist message boards where members distributed our workplace addresses and emails, shared fantasies of enacting violence towards us, and some of us began receiving threatening emails sometimes with gruesome rape and death threats.

An open letter encouraging the cancellation of the event was published and signed by over 100 faculty members, some of whom then began receiving hate messages and death threats. Graduate-student instructors submitted over 50 union grievances claiming that their work environment had become unsafe. Targeted students wrote op-eds in the school paper, for which they also received death threats. Again the university administration failed to respond. After the shooting of an antifascist protester at a Yiannopoulos event at the University of Washington on January 20, alarmed students contacted state and local politicians pleading for an intervention; again, no response, even as administrators became aware of Yiannopoulos’s intent to reveal the identities of undocumented students, in violation of Berkeley’s sanctuary-campus policy.

The free-speech narrative perpetuated in national media by the alt-right—and by prominent pundits on the center and left—provided cover for these threats. While student efforts to tell their stories were largely ignored by the media (perhaps for fear of appearing to support leftist “censorship”) and Koch-funded Republican lawmakers implemented plans to crack down on student protest and academic freedom, Yiannopoulos and avowed white nationalists were celebrated as heroes of free speech. Far-right pundit Ann Coulter even personally thanked liberal TV-host Bill Maher for his support.

This cycle has repeated itself again and again over the past seven months—up to and including the events on August 27. Almost immediately following on-the-ground reports showing provocations—including the pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters by alt-right demonstrators—pundits, who were not on the scene, began decrying antifa’s tactics as “bullying” and “terrorism.”

In response to the selective reporting of these incidents, authorities have turned to law enforcement, exacerbating the situation. Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin has asked that antifa be categorized as a “crime gang,” and calls have been made for federal agencies to label it a terrorist organization. Given the fact that there is no unified “antifa” organization with standing members or leaders, the very idea of labeling anyone who conceals their identity so as not to be doxxed and stalked by white supremacists a “gang member” makes any outspoken activist subject to state repression.

In a grotesque parody of the Berkeley students who stood up for civil rights on Sproul Plaza in 1964, the far right has made free speech on campus a shield for hate groups as it recruits and organizes. College administrators’ knee-jerk defenses for free speech avoid addressing legitimate concerns regarding safety and academic freedom for faculty and students.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ quoted John Stuart Mill in defense of free speech, but conspicuously left out the context. Mill firmly believed speech that advocated harm to others is an abuse of the right to speak. In 1969 the Supreme Court agreed, ruling in Brandenburg v. Ohio that there is no free speech right to advocate violence when violence is likely to occur. There are, in fact, solid legal reasons, particularly after Charlottesville, why campuses can and should deny a platform to far-right speakers, precisely because they encourage violence against specific groups and enable situations of imminent danger.

The threat of white-supremacist violence is real. Leaked threads from an alt-right message board reveal the sadistic aspirations of self-identified Freikorps who gathered online in hopes that their “Day of the Rope”—referring to a Kristallnacht-inspired mass lynching and genocide depicted in the white-nationalist novel The Turner Diaries—would kick off at Berkeley on April 27 when Ann Coulter had been scheduled to speak.

No altercations materialized that day, but determination to provoke violence and justify a state crackdown on antifascist resistance motivates far-right groups to keep coming back to Berkeley. Breaking this iconic “commie” stronghold, in their eyes, would achieve a major milestone on their path to power.

Right-wing speaking events—including the “Free Speech Week” scheduled for late September at Berkeley, featuring the odious trifecta of Yiannopoulos, Coulter, and Steve Bannon—are part of an increasingly coordinated nationwide effort among far-right groups to recruit on college campuses. Using free speech as a wedge to silence dissent and discredit opposition, they intend to radicalize white youth by waging psychological warfare on academic leftists, social-justice organizations, and minorities. It should be no surprise that Jeremy Christian, white-supremacist murderer of two men in Portland, cried out “Free speech or die!” during his day in court. For white supremacists, the push for free speech is directly connected to their campaigns of terror.

Tone-deaf campus administrators continue to ignore the warnings of students and faculty, and prioritize making campuses “safe for free speech” by militarizing university spaces with a heavy police presence—unsurprisingly, with disproportionately detrimental effects on students of color. Violent confrontations can be avoided entirely if responsible decision-makers acknowledge that fascist gatherings by their very presencepose a threat to our spaces of work and learning. Trump’s repeal of DACA this week makes this imperative even more urgent; we must not forget that what is being contested at Berkeley is not just “free speech” for racists but the enforcement of sanctuary-campus policies against ICE.

It cannot be the sole responsibility of communities facing white-supremacist violence to be suitably respectable victims for public consumption. Commentators, politicians, and campus administrators must reject the alt-right’s framing of this as a battle over free speech. Regardless of the far right’s strategies to divide us, we must prioritize the safety of students and amplify the voices of the vulnerable—not promote narratives that serve racist ideologies.

[therightprometheanfire]

While I agree with you that Erik would NEVER join any kind of Nazi group, I can't agree that marvel as a company is leaning towards the far right based on this bull shit. That's ridiculous. It's just stupid decisions made by idiotic people, nothing more nothing less.

I disagree. I think that Marvel is starting to lean towards the right in their main characters and stories, and therefore the ones that gain the most exposure and money. 

All of my examples come from Nick Spencer, admittedly. But they have released an issue of the new Captain America where they not only mock college student’s activism and safe spaces, but he has Sam Wilson musing on his own activism past and internally apologizing to Steve “if he was ever like that”. I will concur that the “activism” of certain college students is nothing more than an excuse to bully others with, but mocking the aspects of student activism in regards to misogyny and trigger warnings is mocking real, honest issues. Spencer claims that it was satire and that people can’t take a joke, but it’s hard to see how that’s possible, considering that the takeaway from this issue seems to be “activists are just whiny college kids who can’t take a joke”.

There are also problems inherent in a black man apologizing to a white man for his past in activism. I’m white, so I’m not going to going into this super deeply, because I don’t want to lay claim to struggles that aren’t mine, but FangirlJeanne on Twitter has an excellent thread discussing the racism of this situation and I would advise checking it out. I will say, however, that Sam apologizing for activism is some bullshit.

Then you have the disastrous “Captain America is HYDRA” business. Steve Rogers was created by two Jewish comic creators to fight Hitler. There is something majorly disrespectful by having a character with that kind of heritage be a member of a group that has always been and still is displayed as white supremacist. This isn’t hyperbole: when EW noted that HYDRA bears a resemblance to “ISIS and white supremacist organizatons”, Spencer answered “that’s exactly right” and went on to say “the Red Skull obviously has a lot of experience with fascism and Nazism and white supremacy movements.” 

When The Daily Beast noted that this treatment of the character seemed contemptuous of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s legacy and reasons for the creation of the character, Spencer evaded the question, saying things like “look, everybody who’s working on this story loves Captain America” and “we are approaching it from a different angle, but I think it illuminates the character in a way that we’ve never seen before”. 

And now we have this. Which is far worse than the Captain America is HYDRA debacle. I’m not going to go into why this one’s fucked up because you know this one, and I don’t think Marvel or Spencer have responded to the anger about this yet. 

Marvel’s done a lot of good shit, I’m not gonna lie. They’ve had openly LGBT characters like America Chavez, Billy Kaplan, Teddy Altman, David Alleyne, the list goes on. They’ve also got POC characters such as Kamala Khan, Amadeus Cho, and the aforementioned America Chavez. There are good writers within the company, and they are doing good work.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that with their major characters (which the above heroes, as much as I adore them, are not) who are therefore the ones to make money and gain more public attention, they are leaning to the right. When Spencer is asked about the company’s resistance to the idea in the same Daily Beast article (linked again for complete sourcing), he answers “it’s a really funny thing, there was not an enormous amount of debate about the story” and “I know that I went into the first [retreat] really expecting to have to fight for it and for there to be pushback, and there was very little”.  When Spencer suggested the idea, they apparently did not fight him on it. In addition to this, the CEO of Marvel, Ike Perlmutter, has not only donated one million dollars to the Trump campaign during the election and an additional five million to a Trump Super Pac, but has been placed on his veteran affairs staff.

Marvel’s most outspoken anti-fascist characters being unashamedly aligned with the equivalent of Nazis is troubling enough on it’s own. When you add in Ike Perlmutter’s political leanings, it seems even worse. To me, Marvel is starting to inch closer and closer to the far-right with their major characters.

This is not to say all Marvel comics are bad, or everyone who works at Marvel is a bad person. I still adore the works of writers such as Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and G. Willow Wilson. There are, of course, good comics within the company.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that when it comes to their most public works and characters, Marvel is leaning towards the right. They’re providing protagonists that are traditionally heroes (I will agree that Erik Lehnsherr, who has gone back and forth on the scale of hero-villain, may not necessarily count as a hero all of the time) with either fascist backstories or enough scorn of activism for members of the far-right to look at them and see themselves within these characters. This is morally unscrupulous and mildly dangerous, and that they seem to keep getting deeper and deeper into this trend is worrying to me.

I would also argue that the far right is absolutely full of stupid decisions being made by idiotic people, and that’s part of why we are in the mess we’re in now, but I think that is a different discussion for another day.

[askthenewhopespeak]

Friends and allies

Jirami sees Kyoji walking in the cafeteria and approaches him after she finished eating. “Nakamura!” 

Kyoji: Ah, Jirami-San! Good morning. “Good morning. This might sound kinda rushed but, may I talk to you in private for a bit? I wanna ask you some things.” Her expression and tone were serious and she tried to get into her work suit. He turns back to look at Mikan, who’s still eating her pancakes. He gives her an apologetic look and an “I’ll be back a bit” sort of hand gesture, then turns back to face Jirami

Kyoji: Of course. What do you wish to know?

She showed him the same drawing she gave Makoto and Kyouko, explaining the connections the students and some teachers had with weird incidents at Hope’s Peak. “I know this is kinda like disrespecting your privacy but in my line of work we do anything to get to the truth, help others and solve problems.” She lets him analyze it before speaking again.

Kyoji: He smirks before handing it back to her. I do the same thing in my line of work. Believe me, I’m all to happy to get the truth out there and make sure people understand what happened. I was involved with a lot of things at this school. Where do you want to start? \

She smiled while folding her arms. “I want to fill that blank with a name I haven’t been able to find and it’s bugging me. I thought you’d know since well, you’re kinda involved in my investigation.”

Kyoji: He ponders it for a moment. I can think of a few possibilities, honestly, as for what binds them together. It may be the man I helped create or the man I’m trying to defeat. 

“I see. Okay if it’s not such a bother, do you mind writing those names down? Just… Being safe, y'know?” She offered him a pencil. 

*He takes it and writes down the names ‘Izuru Kamukura’ and 'Maverick Storm’*

She chuckles when she sees Izuru Kamukura. She did investigate about the project and Hajime Hinata… But never wondered why he wasn’t here.

I’m really losing some skills…

She sighed. “What can you tell me about this… 'Maverick Storm’?” 

Kyoji: Hoo-boy, where do I start? Well, first of all, he’s the Ultimate Manipulator. That should tell you something. He ranks high on the narcissism and antisocial ranks on the personality spectrum model, bending people to his will, showing no empathy or remorse for anything he’s done. I should know, since he was one of my classmates. He put several students in the hospital countless times, including my best friend, Miaya Gekkougahara. She was left with an incomplete spinal injury thanks to him and never regained the ability to walk. Even before Hope’s Peak, there’s some evidence that suggests he triggered a school shooting and motivated one of his adoptive parents into committing suicide. He’s intelligent, determined, cruel, ruthless, but he can’t fight for shit. And as far to anyone’s knowledge, he died in a plane crash. But the odds of that seem…unfavorable, if you ask me. 

Her eyes are wide open at his explanation and frowns afterwards. “This is really bad… Even though I did not have information about him, I had my suspicious that whoever was behind this was alive and weren’t just pawns following orders from a dead leader, like what happened with Junko and the remnants of despair.” 

Kyoji: He’s less of a pawn and more of a wannabe leader. He joined the despair movement not because he was forced or manipulated into it. He did so because it seemed interesting. 

She laughs. “He sounds like the opposite of Kamukura.” After that she clears her throat and goes back to her serious expression. “Nakamura, I’m afraid something big’s going to happen soon. If there are Storm pawns here at Hope’s Peak already, then all of us are in danger. But I’d like you to go easy on them, they’re human still and can change. I think I’m asking too much, I don’t think you’d understand my philosophy though…” She didn’t make eye contact and sadness could be heard in her voice. 

Kyoji: I agree completely. Maverick’s the problem here. We get him out of the way, we can rehabilitate them. And if I may ask, what is your personal philosophy? 

She smiles. “I never thought someone would ask me, to be honest… I believe in most virtue ethics and Kant’s categorical imperative, basically."  

Kyoji: I see. Interesting branch of philosophy to follow. Kant did present some nice ideas. The idea of ethics and morality as reasonable absolutes, like mathematical formulas. Even if he was a pretty wordy guy. 

She chuckles. "I prefer not to deepen into the maths area that much though, I’m a humanist. So will you help my carry on this risky mission, Kyoji Nakamura?” She puts her hand in front of him, waiting for a handshake Kyoji:

shakes her hand

Absolutely, Jirami Senkou “…Thanks.” She wondered if it was fair to tell him her real name, but he would’ve recognized an UN and EU diplomat…

Oh well, he’d find out somehow anyway.

Kyoji: And…if it’s not too much trouble, can I share something with you? 

She tilted her head a bit as a sign of confusion. “Um, sure. What is it?” 

Kyoji: You say you want people to know the truth, right? Because there is a certain truth that precious few people know or fully understand. One that’s followed me my whole life and I want more people to understand. 

“…Yeah.” She folded her arms with a worried expression. “The way the truth is taught to us though… May differ, we come from different cultures.” 

Kyoji: Even so, I’m sure you’ve studied history. You know about Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, right? 

“Of course.” 

Kyoji: Everybody knows about them, but do you know what kind of societies they were? What sort of ideologies they embraced? The kind of ideologies that lead to the torture, murder, and genocide of millions of people. Eugenics, social darwinism, racial hierarchy, those sorts of views. It’s impossible to tease those apart from them. But they were not the ones who invented them. 

“We have to know history for we cannot afford to repeat those events… Is that what you’re trying to say?” 

Kyoji: Yes, of course. But the thing is that not many know why it really happened. World War II is often painted as the story of democratic allied good vs. fascistic axis evil. You wanna know the real truth? “

It can’t hurt to know.” She nodded. 

Kyoji: First of all, the concept of eugenics was the result of a man named Josef Galton, half-cousin of Charles Darwin. He heard about Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and choose to imbue its qualities onto the human species. His idea was that, by encouraging stronger and smarter people to breed, we could create a master race of geniuses. This view was embraced by the whole world. America, the UK, France, Japan, Korea, China, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Australia, pretty much everyone. The idea that the human gene pool could be “improved” by removing certain traits, namely by discouraging breeding in some. And by “discourage,” I mean “sterilize against their will.” In the United States alone, between 1910 and 1932, more than 64,000 people were sterilized for things like a low IQ, mental or physical illness, a mixed racial background, or even traits like alcoholism and criminality. This was before DNA was discovered and it was assumed that these traits could be passed on to children. These ideals were embraced to their full extent by the Axis powers, who followed a new form of political thought that encouraged the spread and domination of their singular groups. For Germany, it was the Aryan Race. For Japan, it was the Japanese Empire. Their views of being a master race were nothing new, but instead an extremist stance on already existing ideological values. They viewed their people as the best and that they needed more land in order to survive. This is why Hitler chose to invade eastern Europe and why Japan invaded Asia. It wasn’t for political gain. It was to acquire more land for more food production and to encourage reproduction of their people. A view of us against all. Eugenics, as a whole, is a pseudoscience and was discredited after the defeat of the Axis powers, thankfully enough. It does nothing but leave some people unable to breed. It certainly doesn’t improve the gene pool to just have smart people or strong people survive and reproduce. Galton failed to recognize that Darwin referred to survival of the fittest as being about adaptation, not strength nor intelligence. If you can adapt, you can survive. That’s what it means. You see the dangers of viewing the other as lesser everywhere in history. The idea that blacks were inherently inferior to whites is what lead to the enslavement of Africans. But people of all colors and ethnicities have been slaves in one way or another. You know why Europe was so advanced and places like Africa and the Americas so underdeveloped by comparison? Environment. There were no good animals for domestication in the Americas, no easy methods of transportation for the exchange of goods in most of Africa, and precious few crops that would grow to the extent that was needed for large civilizations. They were few and far between in some places, but that’s because they lucky. They found the necessary resources. It wasn’t a matter of White or European supremacy. Places like Europe and the fertile crescent were just places where civilization could easily take root. And people have been trying for centuries to determine the differences between people from around the world. Trying to take this knowledge and attempt to justify it with pseudoscientific racism. Skull measurements, brain measurements, skin color, ancestry, everything you can imagine. The irony is, had colonialism never taken off and humans remain on different continents, the idea of humans being split into multiple species would’ve become a fact due to geographic isolation. You keep two members of the same species apart, they will change over time. You understand what I’m saying? 

“I feel like I should be honoured by this knowledge. I understand, even though you’re not going to be our History professor you’d be great there.” 

Kyoji: The history of genetics research and medicine holds both fascinating and terrifying facts. And it’s these sorts of ideological views that lead to Hope’s Peak’s founding in 1937 

She nods and sighs. “It’s kinda frustrating what we humans must do and what we have to experience to really learn the lesson…" She folds her arms. "Nakamura, how do you think this is going to end? I mean, we already went through the Tragedy Junko created… 

Kyoji: With everything that’s happened, I don’t think people are willing to embrace a second tragedy. They will fight back with everything they have. But as for us, I don’t know how this will end. But I do know that I will see this through to the bitter end. I will not surrender the lives of my friends so easily. 

She smiled. "Oh excellent, you seem like you won’t fall to despair that easily either.” 

Kyoji: Some people can fall into despair, but I simply choose not to. Even with everything I know that’s happened, including the Tragedy and all the historical facts I’ve told you, I still believe in hope. I choose to embrace hope, kindness, and freedom. Despair is just another disease to cure, and it’s on its last legs. As an Existentialist, it’s my duty to adhere to my choices authentically. 

“It’s nice to hear that… It’s nice to hear I can trust you as an ally now, I guess.” 

Kyoji: Same here. Though we have a lot of work we’ll need to do if we want to beat Maverick. Fortunately, I know almost everything that happens in this school. And I have a tendency to plan for anything. 

 “Alright then! Now I won’t be so lost about what’s going on. Oh and… Thanks, for everything.” She bows after saying. 

 Kyoji: No problem. And Jirami-San? 

“Mm? Yes?”

 Kyoji: Be careful, okay? Try not to do anything too reckless.

He sounded just like him… She sighed. “I… I’ll try.” She turned her back to him just so he couldn’t see she was about to cry. 

 Kyoji: And please remember that you don’t have to face this alone. Remember that me and a lot of people have got your back from now on. Allies look out for each other in these kinds of situations. 

 “…Okay.” She stood silent for a while before replying. “Sorry, I just have stayed away from people for so long because I don’t want my emotions to get in the way… One can’t be unbiased if relies only on them and as a diplomat, I cannot have that luxury. 

Kyoji: I can understand that. As a doctor, I try to stay impartial as well. But still, in the battle against despair, we need to stick together. Strength in numbers. 

“I understand, it’s true. It’s just that I didn’t ask to stand alone and now I can’t see myself succeeding if there’s someone else by my side helping on this mission.” She wiped her tears with her sleeves, still not turning around to see Kyoji in the eye. 

Kyoji: Well, we’ll never know until we try. And in my experience, it’s good to have people who you know you can rely on. 

“…Even though there’s the probability they’re going to die in front of you and you can’t do anything to save them?” She turned around just to stare at him.

Kyoji: It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I’ve lost a lot of good friends already, but let it be known that I will do everything in my power to protect the ones I still have. I’m a doctor, after all. It’s my job to help people. 

“You say that cuz you’re prepared for the aftermath, you prepared for that, you know what you have to do.” Her tone changed to an American one, she would snap if she couldn’t shake off her memories. “I’m a diplomat and even I couldn’t prevent ourTragedy.” 

Kyoji: Neither could I. And neither could a lot of people. There are too many factors that go into this for you to blame yourself. Besides, dwelling on the past doesn’t solve anything. You learn from your mistakes, then you do everything you can to ensure you don’t repeat them. And I think we’ve learned quite a bit from that experience. I have faith in you, Jirami-San. 

 She sighs and looks away. “Thanks, Nakamura…”

 Kyoji: No problem. looks up at a clock on the wall We should probably head back now. I can tell we’ve probably got a long day ahead of us. 

“Yeah.” There’s a little bit of silence until she speaks again. “Hey, Nakamura? When both you and Miraz were attacked by Shirokuma, Mikan wasn’t feeling well and I wondered how’s she’s doing… If you don’t mind telling me, patient privacy I guess?” 

 Kyoji: She’s…doing alright. It’s probably just all the stress from the incident causing physical effects on her body. Nothing too serious. 

“…Good to know!” She smiles at the news. “So, what are we gonna do next? We keep checking stuff about Storm and we share our discoveries to each other?” 

 Kyoji: Sounds good. Although Hijirihara said he needed to talk to me about something after breakfast. Something very serious. 

“Well, you better not make him wait then. Unless you wanna share that info with me. Kyoji: True. In that case, I guess I’ll talk to you later. 

 "Until then, Nakamura!” She bows. “And again, thanks.” She walks away.

[jonboudposts]

Facing Modern Fascism: You No Longer Have Any Excuses

In Britain, the rest of Europe and America, fascism is now a genuine threat again.  This is not something that has any nuance; there is no argument for seeing both sides.

In Britain the most visible present activity is the movement around Little Tommy Lennon Stephen Robinson, presently in prison (again) for violating a court order while risking derailing a court case against men accused of sex crimes. However, despite these facts, a well-funded movement has grown recently calling for his release from prison on political grounds.  The centre of this group are Islamaphobes of various stripes including reported funding from foreign entities like Rebel Media and Middle East Forum plus the runt of UKIP who now have an overtly Islamophobic leader and are making alliances with the far right (including European and US organisations allegedly funding them).

His rent-a-mob have taken to the streets in mostly small numbers but in some places like London, there have been quite a few of them (although less on 14 July than on 6 May).

The mainstream press, always mostly a shower of worthless shit, are now off the handle and are condemning anyone who disagrees with them.  In particular this is most vicious concerning the ever-changing state of Britain’s attempts to leave the European Union.  Front pages of the Daily Express, Mail and Murdoch rags proclaim anyone not advocating for hard Brexit is a saboteur or traitor; while the continued, detailed stories of how the Leave side cheated and lied are rejected as Remain conspiracy.

We know that extremists are inspired by this sort of thing; two examples are white supremacy-loving ultra-nationalist Anders Brevik who after killing nearly 80 people in Norway in 2011 was found to have a newspaper file in his mum’s back bedroom of Daily Mail stories about European cultural loss being the fault of Muslims (apparently Melanie Phillips was a favourite).  

Then there was Thomas Muir, who murdered Labour MP Jo Cox after getting upset that his mum had a black boyfriend.  He was associated with now-defunct racist gaggle Britain First and had many white supremacist publications at home (probably brought from his mum’s house).

With the kind of numbers now being seen in the streets of Europe and the elect-ability of some of these fuckers, things have gotten severe very quickly. You would think people would be rushing to uphold democratic values and decency against the death-worshipping horror of fascism; but for some reason they are not.

 The Problem

We have to address the issues as to why many people do not want to associate with the anti-fascist movement.

The first is carelessness and selfishness on their part.  Nothing coming from these thugs or these policies touches them and therefore they do not care.  

The second is being stupid enough to fall for the ploy.  Some no doubt buy the surface value argument (coupled with their general hatred of the left) that people like Little Tommy and Katie are free speech advocates and as putting the pieces together is beyond their ability and/or desire, they do not realise that no one’s free speech is being restricted; it’s just typical victim-hood narrative.  

Thirdly, there is cowardice.  Similar to selfishness is their gutless inability to stand up against anything as inarguably evil as fascism.

Fourthly, we have to acknowledge the off-putting aspects of this brand of left politics (and I do not use the word ‘brand’ mistakenly). Unite Against Fascism and Stand Up to Racism are organised by many people associated with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and this turns people off.  The SWP have many draw backs, such as trying to cover up sexual abuse by one of their high-level members and basically being overgrown kids wearing revolutionary costumes.  Like fellow grown babies Class War, no one could really get behind them because what they do is silly gestures.

However, I also have to speak in their favour.  Some people I speak to often call both UAF and SUTR ‘fronts’ but I have no idea what they are a front for (that is silly bourgeois language) and them along with many associates of Class War are always in the street opposing fascism, no matter how dangerous.  This will always give them an edge on the rest of you.  I greatly respect HOPE Not Hate for the work they do, but I have far more problems with them and their division tactics than the others.

So after talking all that shit about each group, I must call for unity against a very clear threat to all people, culture and life.

Fascism is a serious threat again, weather Alt Right or alt light. We must all act against it or face the consequences and ignorance is unacceptable.

If you were on the recent anti-Trump demos around Britain, there is no reason to not take part in antifascism work.  Those demos were anti-fascist, not only in spirit but practice; both Unite Against Fascism and Stand Up to Racism had a big part in organising; many people not associated to those groups were there for active anti-fascist reasons against the Trump administration.; this was the bigger issue we fought regardless of differences, because everyone recognises they are the biggest and most powerful far right government around presently.

 What We Must Do

Overcome Division – left wing divisiveness is the biggest pain in my arse and I am sick of it.  I have no doubt I am not alone here.  We must put it to one side, admit we will never agree on everything and try to respect those differences in people who are brave enough to stand up to fascism; I am not asking you to attend a barbeque with people you hate; just hold a line against far right extremists (which is greatly preferable to a barbeque).

Make the Movement Your Own – who cares which group want to sink money and time into organising the street resistance? Go there, do your own thing, form your own local groups and tackle this extremism the best way you think, although I would advise paying close attention to history and practicality – don’t waste time with what doesn’t work.

If you really do not want to take to the streets, then support those who do. From providing the vital research work to battling it out online to even just helping your friends fight the scourge of decent society, you can make a role for yourself and will be just as respected for your efforts.

Be Honest: Immigration is Great – most decent people will openly say they have no problem with immigration, but that is not good enough.  We need to say very specifically that our countries (Britain in particular) has been greatly improved by immigrants in culture, food, music and many other ways.  No one should be treated as badly as they are simply for coming from somewhere else.

Absolutely No Middle Ground with Racists and Fascists – fairly self-explanatory; these are dangerous and I say evil people.  They are only having a moment right now because they are being bankrolled by far right organisations with revenue (they are literally a rent-a-mob). When pressure is put upon them by an unyielding forces of good, they fall away; did in the past and will do in the future.

We know how appalling our attention-seeking, hateful enemies are and none of that matters.  The truth has become a near-redundant currency in the real, living world and unless we act now, it will likely be gone forever.  So many people speak of pride at their grandparents standing up to fascism in the 1930s and 40s.  Now it is your turn.