organization, movement or a catch-all scapegoat?

Antifa is making the news again. It's propelled their by the White House and its cronies of course. I say of course because "antifa" isn't really the thing that some very loud people want it to be. If you listen to the rhetoric of the White House, MAGA pundits or influencers even further right than that, they'd have you believe that:

• it's a massive organization with strict progressive leadership,
• encompassing anyone further left than they are,
• with deep pockets
• aimed at intentionally scheming and supporting political violence

The problem is its none of these things.

At best you could call antifa a movement of like minded people but there is no organization, no leadership, no big schemes. Individuals showing up tend to use similar tactics (ie, black bloc) but that's about it.

They unite as against (anti) fascism (the word has it's origins in German anti-fascist movements).

And I think that's telling here. If you are watching the government propaganda right now and thinking "Ya! Get 'em!" you should maybe take a second to stop and ask yourself, "Why would they/I be against people against fascism?" From where I sit, the two againsts cancel each other out and you are just left with fascism. Is that really what you want? Is it worth throwing out the constitution and the American way of life for these people that just want to demean, dehumanize and destroy others so that they can insure their power and control? Maybe you don't know what fascism is. Wikipedia is helpful here:

• "Fascism is characterized by a dictatorial leader" (Disturbing comments are being made embracing this possibility)
• "centralized autocracy" (The massive overreach and abuse of something called the unitary executive theory comes into play here)
• "militarism" (The WH is trying to rename the Department of Defense, the DoD keeps blowing up random boats without due process, the Sec of Defense is demanding loyalty tests of journalists, etc)
• "forcible suppression of opposition" (See above, also the gerrymandering in MAGA controlled states)
• "belief in a natural social hierarchy" (See attacks on the trans community which stem from government rhetoric, commitment to go after the obergefell ruling, increased chatter about Christian Nationalist theonomy that wants women in the kitchen, etc)
• "subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race" (See the last point for examples plus the rise of white supremacy groups, the attacks on immigrants and immigration, etc)
• "strong regimentation of society and the economy" (see tariffs, made up excuses to fire a black women on the fed governors board, etc)

I wish I didn't have extremely current examples of all of that but yeah. Fascism. And I'm against it. I'm for people. For people being able to exist and thrive and have their own views and such. I'm for the minority having a voice. I'm for being a nation known for the good it does in the world not for celebrating blowing up some boats in the middle of the ocean. I'd love us to be a nation at the forefront of science and research, not actively dismantling it for the sake of regimentation. We should all be against fascism and the harm it causes. We should all be at least sympathetic towards antifa.

I've not done any black bloc protesting. I've not been involved in the things attributed to antifa. I am anti-fascist though. I don't really know where that leaves me though since the people in charge seem to love fascism so much. I wouldn't be surprised if one places it leaves me is more engaged in (strictly nonviolent) protest efforts. ✊🏻