This dude in my university is claiming that Antifa is "the greatest threat to United States national security."

@Carver I agree. I hate Antifa as much as anyone, but they're just a bunch of edgy teenagers who spray paint on public property. They're not some kind of dangerous terrorist organization.

@BlueMetalChick They're a terrorist organization but not on par with ISIS. They're domestic terrorists like BLM.

@Carver BLM has done some pretty fucked up stuff but I can't necessarily call them a "terrorist organization" because BLM isn't actually an organization. It's just a hashtag. It's a catchphrase preceded by a pound sign lol. So technically the only thing you need to do to be part of BLM is to say you're part of BLM.

Regardless, they have destroyed both public and private property, which counts under the definition of terrorism.

@Carver @BlueMetalChick Today I learned civil rights protestors and suffragettes were terrorists then I guess?

@BlueMetalChick College kids have destroyed private and public property after winning championships. 🙂

@CountScrofula Except those two weren't everything they claimed to fight against like Antifa are, they were actually living through oppression and fought for a valid cause. If you're going to compare Antifa to the civil rights and feminist movements, don't. You'd have better luck comparing them to the Sturmabteilung of Nazi Germany.

@CountScrofula If you follow the textbook definition of terrorism, then technically yes. At least in some cases. Usually, though, we don't use the textbook definition.

@LvChris Lol, that was kinda funny actually.

Although I don't consider civil rights activists, protesters, or suffragettes to be terrorists, some examples of their actions could be called terrorism if you use the rigid definition of that word, which is to commit acts of violence in order to promote or further the cause of a political, religious, or social ideology. Now for the most part, those aforementioned groups did NOT fall under that category because they weren't committing acts of violence. However, there are some instances of people having physically attacked someone else or intentionally caused property destruction for their cause. Those examples are few are far between though, and so generally, they're not terrorists.

@Carver Antifa don’t claim anything, they just want to punch nazis. That’s about the only that even remotely unifies them - they aren’t anything approaching an organization. Commies, anarchists, regular folks, etc that show up under the banner have little in common aside from that. Hell, they mostly hate each other.

@QuixoticSoul I hate Nazis as much as the next guy and wouldn't hesitate to punch one were I in an actual fight with one. But running around on the street socking people in the face cos they don't like gay marriage ain't what I do.

@QuixoticSoul Ditto what BMC said. I would only add that Antifa actually claim a lot of things but their activities don’t reflect their supposed values. Their claim to be against fascism, for one. A lot of the shit they do is about as fascist as it gets.

@Carver Well, it's authoritarian at least. Fascism specifically is when the government itself functions as a private entity, like a corporation or big business.

But that's the definition of Benito Mussolini's fascism, and since those days it's kinda widened up to represented dictatorial repression of free expression, I suppose.

Kinda like how "liberalism" used to mean unregulated free market capitalism but now it means support for gay marriage and legalization of marijuana.

@Carver They don’t claim anything lmao, they just punch nazis. It’s a spectacularly shallow philosophy, and there isn’t really much else to it.

And no, it’s not even remotely fascist.

I think it’s a fairly stupid LARP in 2019, but then again nazis keep showing up too - I’m happy to let all those morons keep at it.

@QuixoticSoul It's funny you say that because Agape just called them LARPers too about four minutes ago and that's the first time I'd hear them called that, and it cracked me up 😂

@BlueMetalChick Hah. It fits though. Same for the other set of retards.

@QuixoticSoul With their jackboots and eagle pins. It's like they're cosplaying.

@QuixoticSoul What do you call their namesake then? And how is assaulting people for having opposing views and trying to silence other's right to free speech not fascist?

@Carver Their namesake is claiming something, but it's a negative claim, not a positive claim. "Antifa" is a portmanteau of the words "anti-fascism" which means they're stating what they're against but not what they're for. And opposing fascism does not dictate one as a communist, a socialist, or even a leftist. Most rightists would oppose fascism as well, particularly paleoconservatives and libertarians.

As for assaulting people for expressing opposing views, that practice existed thousands of years before fascism ever did. People forget it but fascism is quite young; the words itself was added to English lexicon less than a century ago. Repression of freedom of speech and freedom to express opposing viewpoints is something as old as humans themselves.

@BlueMetalChick I already knew what their name meant and that what they do isn't inherently fascist since, of course, none of it started with fascism, but in terms behaving in a fascist way - disregarding the regime definition - I'd say they're pretty fascist themselves.

@Carver They are rightly authoritarian, you're absolutely correct about that. And fascism cannot exist without authoritarianism so I see the overlap. It's not like there's any form of "democratic fascism."

@AgapeLove You're right that fascism and Nazism or "national socialism" are not compatible from a philosophical and social standpoint. I think it's mostly the politics and economics that are so similar. The actual structure of a fascist government looks almost identical to that of the Third Reich.