Antifa has finally grabbed the attention of the establishment media. For over a year, the hard leftist group has attempted to bully conservative voters into silence by using violent black bloc tactics – and the press has largely ignored them. After a white supremacist killed a counter-protester during the rally in Charlottesville, VA, the vaunted Fourth Estate decided to cover Antifa. The major news outlets have excoriated the group’s penchant for using physical force to prevent conservatives from exercising their first amendment rights. Aw, who am I kidding? This is the leftist establishment media we’re talking about here. The truth is that the press did everything they could to obscure the truth about the organization.
Instead of reporting the facts about Antifa, they have decided to portray these leftist bullies as valiant crusaders against white supremacy and Nazism. The message of the media can be summed up in one sentence: “Sure, Antifa is violent, but they attack Neo-Nazis and white supremacists!” Let’s take a look at some of the more egregious lies the establishment media has told about Antifa.
For starters, CNN published a piece originally entitled “Unmasking the leftist Antifa movement: Activists seek peace through violence.” After the internet took them to task for the misleading headline, they changed the title to “Unmasking the leftist Antifa movement.”
In the piece, CNN describes Antifa as a group who is “willing to physically attack anyone who employs violence against them or who condones racism — as long as force is used in the name of eradicating hatred.” They depicted the group as an organization that opposes racism and fascism – there was no mention of the fact that the group mostly attacks normal, non-racist conservatives participating in political rallies.
The New York Times wasn’t much better. While they said that the group assaults people who aren’t Nazis or white supremacists, they downplay this inconvenient fact. They wrote,
Groups that identify as anti-fascist — also known as antifa (pronounced an-TEE-fa) — have been physically confronting neo-Nazis, white supremacists and, in some cases, speakers who merely challenge the boundaries of political correctness on college campuses across the country.
The notion that Antifa only attacks non-racists “in some cases” is demonstrably false. The reality is that most of their violent activities are perpetrated against conservatives who have nothing to do with fascism or racism.
While CNN and The New York Times published blatantly misleading stories about Antifa, The Washington Post took it to another level. They wrote,
The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists.
The idea that Antifa is physically defending themselves against white supremacy is ridiculous. Whenever they show up at a conservative event, they are the aggressors. Attacking Trump supporters with pepper spray at UC Berkeley was not an act of self-defense. Causing physical harm to a professor to prevent author Charles Murray from speaking was not an example of protecting themselves.
The fact of the matter is that Antifa is not some revolutionary group standing up to the evils of fascism – indeed, they use the very tactics of the people they claim to hate. While they have launched attacks on white supremacist rallies, they tend to focus primarily on average, run-of-the-mill conservatives who do not espouse racist ideas. Let’s look at some examples:
- In Portland, OR, Antifa used violence against participants at a free speech rally.
- At New York University, the group assaulted people attending a speech by comedian Gavin McInnes.
- Members of the organization attacked conservatives at a pro-Trump rally in Huntington Beach, CA using clubs and pepper spray.
- In Boston, Antifa threw rocks and bottles filled with urine at police officers during a free speech rally.
After months of sticking their heads in the sand, the establishment media has finally been forced to acknowledge that this group exists. The events that occurred in Charlottesville have shone a spotlight on both white supremacy and hard leftist ideology. Always loath to let a good crisis go to waste, the media used this event as an opportunity to normalize hard leftist groups like Antifa.
The press’ refusal to tell the truth about the hard left will only embolden those who see these actions as an appropriate way to confront people with whom they disagree. But even worse, it keeps the American public ignorant of this pernicious movement that seeks to destroy the First Amendment rights of conservatives.
Instead of using arguments to persuade, groups like Antifa use fists and weapons to coerce. They have rejected intelligent debate in favor of physical force – and the media has no business covering for them. If we are going to prevent the hard left from forcing their will on the American public, we must continually expose their misdeeds. Since the media is not interested in telling America the truth, it is up to us to make sure the public knows who these people are.
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