Posted on August 15, 2018

“Anti-Fascists” Are Also “Anti-Journalists”

Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, August 15, 2018

It’s been said that a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. Perhaps an honest journalist is one who’s been beaten by antifa.

The “Unite the Right 2” demonstration in Washington, D.C., held on the anniversary of the demonstration in Charlottesville, received massive media coverage. Demonstrators held a small rally and then left. Sizable contingents of antifa in both Washington D.C. and Charlottesville, however, were violent, ostensibly as a protest against racism.

In both Charlottesville and Washington, there were so few “racists” to be found that antifa mostly attacked journalists, police, and passersby. The violence was especially striking in Charlottesville, where there was no right-wing demonstration at all. There was even an “anti-fascist” demonstration in Toronto — with no “racists” — and journalists were threatened.

On the night of August 11, NBC’s Cal Perry was attacked in Charlottesville:

On August 12, antifa attacked the police in Washington D.C.:

In Washington, antifa reportedly confronted a photographer from USA Today and began screaming threats and curses. This is far more intimidating than the occasional vulgar gestures (and requests for selfies) CNN’s Jim Acosta got at a recent Donald Trump rally, where his colleague April Ryan said his life “was in jeopardy.”

Vox’s Jennifer Williams wrote an article accusing antifa members of having “attacked cops and journalists.” She said it was “not the first time” antifa had been violent, but that this time it was different. “[I]t wasn’t neo-Nazis and white supremacists the antifa attacked,” she wrote. “It was police who were there to help keep the peace among all the demonstrators and journalists who were there to cover the events.”

This is hardly new. Last year, after Unite the Right, Breitbart listed nearly a dozen antifa attacks on journalists. Reporters covering protests are often jostled or insulted by militant antifa demanding they stop recording, as in this protest in St. Louis in September 2017.

There were also attacks on journalists in Charlottesville last year. Taylor Lorenz, who was working for The Hill, was reportedly punched by a counter-protester who demanded she “stop the f**king recording!”

Some journalists, such as CNN’s Brian Stelter and Jake Tapper, condemned antifa violence against journalists, with the latter explaining it was common. However, most ignored it, notably NBC, which seemingly overlooked an assault on its own people. CNN’s Chris Cuomo condemned those who attack journalists and police, but still took sides: “[I]n a clash between hate and those who oppose it, those who oppose it are on the side of right.” Christopher Mathias at the Huffington Post said Vox was wrong even to admit that antifa had attacked journalists.

“Fascism” fighters are so noble that their unprovoked violence should be passed over in silence.

The media seem to think antifa are simply opposed to “white supremacy.” “How that [attacks on journalists and police] factors into antifa’s ideology is anyone’s guess,” wrote Miss Williams in her Vox piece. It’s not “anyone’s guess;” it’s easy to explain.

Last year, Vox itself interviewed Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. He explained that antifa “have no allegiance to liberal democracy” and are “anarchists and communists who are way outside the traditional conservative-liberal spectrum.” Mr. Bray’s targets are not just “Nazis” but Trump supporters:

Our goal should be that in twenty years those who voted for Trump are too uncomfortable to share that fact in public. We may not always be able to change someone’s beliefs, but we sure as hell can make it politically, socially, economically, and sometimes physically costly to articulate them.

In Charlottesville, antifa chanted “all cops are racist, you better face it.” In Washington, D.C., Breitbart reported that some demonstrators wanted to “overthrow the United States government.” Breitbart did not point out that many of the antifa signs and slogans were from the Revolutionary Communist Party, which is chiefly distinguished by the personality cult it has created around its leader Bob Avakian. The RCP and its propaganda are found at many leftist demonstrations and its spokesman has been interviewed be Huffington Post. There were also chants of “no borders, no wall, no USA at all” at the demonstration in D.C.

In other words, as Mark Bray himself said, this is a movement of anarchists and communists that does not feel bound by the law. Antifa attack reporters because they do not want pictures and video evidence of their criminal activities. This is also why the reporter in Charlottesville who was attacked was accused of being a “snitch.” What’s more, as their own chants and slogans confirm, “anti-fascism” is explicitly anti-American and calls for the abolition of our country. It is not “opposing hate,” but opposing America. Yet somehow, journalists can’t identify anarchists and communists for what they are, even when they are waving flags and displaying signs that declare their intentions.

As Miss Williams’s Vox article showed, many journalists seem to have no interest in understanding or even reporting on antifa. While she at least admitted they were attacking journalists and police, she can’t be bothered to find out why.

By contrast, journalists report the motives of racial dissidents with complete confidence. People at the second Unite the Right really were called “white supremacists,” “white nationalists,” or “Nazis,” even though organizer Jason Kessler’s repudiated these labels and explained he was a white civil rights activist. It’s hard to take reporters seriously when they are determined to present white advocates in the darkest possible light while refusing even to consider the intentions and actions of leftist radicals. Chris Cuomo’s description of antifa as those “opposing hate” is propaganda.

Antifa reject the rule of law and freedom of speech. They invariably bring violence and disorder to pro-white demonstrations. They attack police and the press. It’s hard to feel sorry for bruised journalists when they persist in calling us “Nazis” while calling antifa “opposers of hate.”