October 12, 2020

"The building block of antifa is what's called an affinity group, people you live and work with and trust and know in real life...."

"All the planning is done within that closed bloc, and they don't let everyone know [what they're going to do]. I didn't know that they were going to burn the Portland Police Association when I joined. What they did was put a call out that said, 'Anyone show up in black that night at this place, and you can join the action.' That's called a semi-open bloc.... Basically they're baiting the police into overreacting.... They come in, they attack the cops, they get out. Antifa goes for a certain type of violence, a mid-level violence. Most people aren't practiced in violence, and what they'll do is, they'll either back down or they'll overreact. Antifa basically as a group does the equivalent of just pushing someone on the shoulder, and again, and again.... But a big thing for them is they have convinced themselves that they're doing something good. They're very big about trying to maintain, at least in their eyes, the moral high ground. Part of that is not killing people. They want that moral high ground and they construct it. And that's kind of what they do by using that mid-level of violence. They want you to overreact because not being extremely violent is how they convince themselves they're better. And it's also great propaganda...."

From "The Conservative Trans Woman Who Went Undercover With Antifa in Portland/Confessions of a black bloc mole" (Reason)(a 10-day-old article I'm just getting around to reading).

29 comments:

rehajm said...

The building block of antifa is what's called an affinity group, people you live and work with and trust and know in real life. All the planning is done within that closed bloc, and they don't let everyone know [what they're going to do].

In Al-Qaeda these groups were called cells. The similarities don't stop there...

wendybar said...

They are busy fighting FAS since they are ANTI that. They are the VERY fascists they are beating up.

gilbar said...

the Beauty of Cells (oh! sorry, 'Blocks')

"Antifa's an idea, not an organization," Biden said
"Anarchy's an idea, not an organization," Biden said
"Communism's an idea, not an organization," Biden said
"The DNC's an idea, not an organization," Biden said

I'm Not Sure said...

"They're very big about trying to maintain, at least in their eyes, the moral high ground."

Because nothing says "moral high ground" quite like busting windows and burning cars.

Krumhorn said...

I’m all about the over-reaction. We could do with a Kent State on a massive scale focusing particularly on these thugs.

- Krumhorn

Jupiter said...

"Part of that is not killing people."

Or at least, only one or two. At first.

Big Mike said...

But a big thing for them is they have convinced themselves that they're doing something good. They're very big about trying to maintain, at least in their eyes, the moral high ground.

And only in their own eyes. They do not strike me as the sort of people who will some day walk away from what they are doing and become productive members of society. One wonders whether the FBI is infiltrating this organization, or are they politically exempt?

Jupiter said...

I have been reading about the Spanish Civil War lately. Something they don't teach in school is, it was a very close call. The Good Guys could easily have lost, if the Bad Guys hadn't been such a bunch of assholes.

narciso said...

the republic spent as much time, going after trotskyites and anarchists as they did the nationalist army,


https://www.amazon.com/Long-Live-Death-Victory-Spanish-ebook/dp/B08DCHBG45

mikee said...

"Useful Idiots" are called that for a reason. This article explains why.

Regarding the Spanish Civil War (won in the 1930s with a lot of violence), and more recently the revolutionary communist wars in Honduras (suppressed in 1954 with a lot of violence), Cuba (won by communists in 1959), Mexico (suppressed in 1968 with a lot of violence) El Salvador & Nicarauga (suppressed in the 1980s with a lot of violence), Chile (suppressed with a lot of violence in the 1970s-1980s), Argentina (suppressed with a lot of violence in the 1970s), Venezuela (won by the communists in 1990s), Columbia (suppressed with a lot of violence in the 2010s), Peru (suppressed with a lot of intermittent violence up to 2020), and Equador (suppressed with a lot of intermittent violence up to 2020), I've always noticed one thing about suppression of communist revolutions. And it isn't that they respond to mostly peaceful opposition.

The revolutionaries of Antifa can be taken down by legal authorities, and should be. Fast. Otherwise, those who won't accept a communist revolutionary leadership in the US will do what every other nation in this hemisphere had to do to stop them.

mikee said...

I, for one, prefer my Che T-shirts to show him with the bullet hole in his forehead.
He is then a good communist revolutionary.

Joe Smith said...

If the first ten looters were shot on sight we wouldn't have a problem.

I'm OK with that.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"Antifa basically as a group does the equivalent of just pushing someone on the shoulder, and again, and again"

For which the proper response is to grab the pusher's arm, twist it, slam them into the ground, and then accidentally step on their head.

If they're a group, the proper response is to snipe from a distance, and keep on doing so whenever they commit any violence.

What Antifa is going to find out is that their garbage doesn't work any place outside of wimpy white parts of large leftist cities.

Because the real good guys will be perfectly comfortable with shooting the violent Antifa thugs

Michael K said...

Blogger Joe Smith said...
If the first ten looters were shot on sight we wouldn't have a problem.


The strategy is to use blacks as the looters and foot soldiers. The Antifa organizers are white and break windows so the blacks can loot. It's the plan and shooting looters would have been part of it.

Mark said...

Ann complains about AdSense, but is totally ok with Krumhorn suggesting the National Guard shoot civilians.

Interesting moral ground chosen, or not.

Original Mike said...

"They're very big about trying to maintain, at least in their eyes, the moral high ground. Part of that is not killing people."

Wow. And here I thought they were a bunch of thugs. But now that I'm told they try not to kill people, well…

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Greg The Class Traitor said...

What Antifa is going to find out is that their garbage doesn't work any place outside of wimpy white parts of large leftist cities.

Antifa has not (yet) had anyone run an offensive operation against them, only defensive measures and crowd dispersal by Law Enforcement. When an active effort is made to crackdown on their activities in the future the vast majority will crumble fairly quickly. They are imbued with the conceit that they can keep rioting and get away scot-free. Once consequences are inevitable they will lose all interest in fighting "Da Man".

Gk1 said...

"What Antifa is going to find out is that their garbage doesn't work any place outside of wimpy white parts of large leftist cities."

This is pretty true as far as what I see the only notable exception has been San Francisco. So far none of these antifa goons have started anything. The only reason I can think of is they don't really want to mix it up with junkies who have taken over the city and the poo caked sidewalks.

James Pawlak said...

In traditional terms that "Affinity Group" is a "Cell". In fact, they are cancerous cells.

todd galle said...

My wife has stopped asking why i have loaded weapons throughout the house. I honestly wonder if these radical losers understand what disciplined individuals unconstrained by liberally directed police policy would actually do to them.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Mark said...
Ann complains about AdSense, but is totally ok with Krumhorn suggesting the National Guard shoot civilians.


"Civilians"?

Rapists and murderers are "civilians". Do you object if someone has to shoot them to make them stop?

What is it like, being so evil that even you know that your positions are utter crap, and that therefore you must lie about them?

Larry J said...

But a big thing for them is they have convinced themselves that they're doing something good. They're very big about trying to maintain, at least in their eyes, the moral high ground.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

― C. S. Lewis

Krumhorn said...

Ann complains about AdSense, but is totally ok with Krumhorn suggesting the National Guard shoot civilians.

Civilians? Organized groups wearing definable identifiers are defined under the Geneva Conventions as combatants as distinguished from civilians. In the alternative, they are unlawful combatants.

In no instance are they civilians. No society has any moral obligation to permit organized combatants to destroy property, injure police, and threaten actual civilians. Mark is clearly psychotically disconnected from reality along with a great many other lefties in this country.

- Krumhorn

Narr said...

The situation now allows for this sort of free-floating loosely-organized radicalism, where it doesn't encourage it; it's a parallel to Islamic radicalism, which is not an accident.

M. Van Creveld argues that the authorities in liberal Western countries are easily played by their opponents, especially in the matter of violence thresholds; it's nearly impossible for uniformed state actors NOT to appear like the bad guys given the framing of riots as protests, and lacking any understanding of the underlying ideology.

Kent State is a bad example, BTW; most of those killed or wounded were NOT protesting or rioting IIRC, just walking in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the NG leadership and training for crowd control was crap.

Narr
It's better now, supposedly


Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Seattle City Council woman Kshama Sawant is the target of a recall petition. She's a socialist councilwoman who's all in favor of BLM, antifa and the CHAZ/CHOP zone. If she had her way, the police would be disbanded, the jails emptied and guns banned.

Big Mike said...

Mark is forcing me to rethink my comment at 9:14. Apparently there are “useful idiots” who regard the rioters and looters and arsonists as nevertheless having some sort of moral standing.

DavidD said...

I thought antifa was an idea.

Now you’re telling me it’s got building blocks ’n stuff?

I'm Not Sure said...

Portland antifa has a website:

https://www.rosecityantifa.org/

Must be more than "an idea".

Rusty said...

Blogger Mark said...
"Ann complains about AdSense, but is totally ok with Krumhorn suggesting the National Guard shoot civilians."

Just the bad ones.

Interesting moral ground chosen, or not.

You as well.