Links - 9th October 2019 (2) (Antifa)

永近英良♤ | asucca - "Nazis: Let's commit genocide.
Antifa: Let's not.
BLM: Please stop shooting us.
Centrist: I cannot tell these apart."
"I just *burns cars* can’t understand *glorifies deadly regimes* why these darn *loots and trashes local businesses* centrists *blocks traffic* aren’t *smashes nonviolent people over the head with blunt objects* on board with our reasonable *guns down five policemen* movements??????"

The Demands of Antifa and the Original Fascists Have a Lot in Common - "The Fascist Manifesto was proclaimed in 1919 by Alceste De Ambris and Filippo Tommaso Marienetti. In their pamphlet, the authors called for an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage; it demanded worker representation in industrial management and equal standing of trade unions, industrial executives, and public servants. The authors of the Fascist Manifesto demanded progressive taxation, invalidity insurance, and other types of social benefits, along with reducing the retirement age. The Manifesto demanded the confiscation of the property of all religious institutions and to nationalize the armament industry."

How Antifa's Apologists Fell in Love With Street Violence - "one of the main principles of the new activist left is that unfriendly media organizations should not have the right to cover their activities, even on public property.But it isn’t just conservative media outlets that bear the “unfriendly” designation; many activists are equally dismissive of mainstream news sources. One activist told me that she hates CNN just as much as Trump supporters do. Only explicitly leftist media organizations are permitted to cover the antics of the #Resistance... “The inherent contradiction of antifa,” wrote Carlos Lozada in his fair-minded but ultimately critical review of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, “is that, if America is indeed so irredeemable and hypocritical that violence is the answer, then what exactly are you fighting to preserve?” Those who defend the validity of mob violence claim that it is justifiable to the extent that it unnerves the powers that be. But do the powerful really feel threatened by a smashed Starbucks window or Richard Spencer taking a punch? The evidence strongly suggests the opposite: When leftists resort to explicit violence, they make regular people more sympathetic to governmental authority and a conservative worldview.Princeton University’s Omar Wasow studied protest movements in the 1960s and found that violent upheaval tended to make white voters more conservative, whereas nonviolent protests were associated with increased liberalism among white voters... This is something that President Richard Nixon understood quite well. In 1969, he received a memo from an aide warning him to expect increased violence on college campuses in the spring. The president grabbed a pen and scrawled a single word across the document: “Good!” He knew something many activists failed to grasp: Law-and-order policies become more palatable to the silent majority when leftists are punching people in the streets.In contrast, “nonviolent movements succeed because they invite mass participation,” says Maria Stephan, a director at the United States Institute of Peace. Violent resistance, on the other hand, is incredibly divisive. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth produced a book, Why Civil Resistance Works, which found nonviolent resistance movements were twice as likely as violent movements to achieve their aims in the 20th and early 21st centuries. “A campaign’s commitment to nonviolent methods enhances its domestic and international legitimacy and encourages more broad-based participation in the resistance, which translates into increased pressure being brought to bear on the target,” they wrote. According to Stephan and Chenoweth, governments have little trouble justifying brutal crackdowns on violent protesters, but nonviolent protesters engender greater sympathy from the public, reducing the likelihood of repression... the idea that certain people do not deserve free speech protections is now as popular among the far left as it always was among the far right. But it didn’t use to be this way: Leftists were once firm defenders of free speech for all, even for Nazis. Amazingly, in fact, when the Nazis came to campus in the 1960s, they did so at the left’s invitation."

Portland protests: Man walks into a crowd of Proud Boys and yells 'f**k you' at every one of them apart from their dog - "After the clip was shared to social media, it quickly went viral, with many calling the man a 'hero'"
The benchmark for being an hero is very low indeed
This shows that the "far right" is very tolerant. If someone did this to an antifa crowd...

Daryl Davis - "Hey Folks, You want to hear a good one?... I have spent 30+ years talking with Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, White Supremacists, White Separatists, Black Supremacists, Black Separatists, Alt Right members and just about every other group you can imagine with a superiority complex. The purpose of which, is bring some reconciliation amongst different ideological groups to reduce violence and racism and bring about a sense of normalcy and civility among my fellow Americans. For my efforts, many of which have been successful, I have been called a nigger, a porch monkey, a pavement ape, by racists, an Uncle Tom, an Uncle Ruckus, an Oreo, a race traitor, a sellout, both a pimp and a prostitute, by some of those who look like me and who claim to despise racism. When you add it all up, I've been just about called every name but my own name. In my 61 years on this Earth, i've seen a lot and I've heard a lot. But a few nights ago I was called something I could not imagine being called in a million years. I was part of a panel in Philadelphia, assembled by the conference organizers to discuss ways to de-escalate racism, antisemitism and violence in our country. Meanwhile, a group known as Antifa (short for /Anti- Facist), threatened to do violence to the conference organizers and panel speakers and burn down the building where we were to speak. Despite the threats, we had a very successful conference. We celebrated with an after-party in a room filled with people from all walks of life and every political persuasion from MAGA hat wearing Trump supporters to supporters of those at the opposite end of the Make America Great Again people and everyone in between on the spectrum. We ALL got along fantastically. Meanwhile, the police department shut down the streets surrounding the site of the party as a crowd of about 40 Antifa members gathered outside the building to protest, accusing the the speakers and organizers of being racist We invited the Antifa members to come in a join the party and have an opportunity to talk with us. They refused. I thought I had seen and heard it all in my 61 years and nothing would surprise me, but I was mistaken. Now are you ready for this? The Antifa people called me a White Supremacist. What??? Are you kidding me??? Wow!!! That's right, you heard me!!! They called ME, a White Supremacist. Now, I KNOW I've heard it all. It's good to be colorblind sometimes, but this is ridiculous!!!"
Previously featured on "How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes"

Violence and Freethought - "Op-eds wonder whether it can ever be right to “punch a Nazi.” The possibility of bloodshed at protests and rallies is beginning to resemble an inevitability... Agitators on the far Left tell us that occasionally violence is permissible, even necessary, to prevent the rise of fascism... You can “kill” a Nazi in two ways: by murder or by persuading the person to abandon that ideology. When we introduce violence into the fray, we must ask ourselves: How far are we willing to go, and what are we willing to lose to get there?A punch may hurt a Nazi, but it won’t change his or her mind. Perhaps a black eye will cow some into staying quiet. But what if in others it has the opposite effect? What if this fuels the Nazi’s sense of victimhood, allowing him or her to better frame his or her actions as self-defense?Let’s make one thing clear: We didn’t defeat the Nazis by a few well-placed punches. In fact, not only did the “anti-fascist” streetfighters of the 1930s fail to prevent Hitler’s rise, according to historian Laurie Marhoefer, they may have even aided the Nazi propaganda machine. “… Historians believe events like the rally in Wedding helped the Nazis build a dictatorship,” Marhoefer wrote in an article for TheConversation.com. “Yes, the brawl got them media attention. But what was far, far more important was how it fed an escalating spiral of street violence. That violence helped the fascists enormously. Violent confrontations with antifascists gave the Nazis a chance to paint themselves as the victims of a pugnacious, lawless left. They seized it.”It would be wise to remember what did stop the Nazis: a global coalition prepared to enact an unimaginable magnitude of violence. We didn’t just punch them; we gunned them down. We rained fire and death onto their country. We looked the other way as our troops raped their women and as our allies killed untold numbers in labor camps. The cost for such a measure was not being maced by an annoyed officer and spending a few days in a jail. It was the lives of millions—soldier and civilian alike. Not only are the fantasies of the modern-day fascism-fighters rooted in an infantile view of history, the willingness to revel in the glory of violence is in itself indicative of a disturbed mind. It is one thing to grimly resort to violent action (as we had to in World War II); it is quite another to gleefully declare violent intentions. Op-ed writers are not the only ones to notice a similarity between the violent Left and the violent Right. Scottish historian Norman Stone noted in his introduction to the book Diary of a Man in Despair, “It often happened that people who had been in Fascist jails went back into the same jails, now Communist, and guarded, often enough, by the same wardens who had turned coats. This ignored an important element in modern German history: that anti-Fascists had quite often been men of the Right.” They may have been “men of the Right” before they were men of the Left, but their real affiliation was to a strong boot. When violence is introduced into society, the relevant dichotomy isn’t Right or Left, nor is it conservative or liberal. Violence is most useful to those who are the most willing to use it, and with its normalization, societal hierarchy rearranges to place the vicious towering above all... As Adam Gopnik noted in the New Yorker, “The whole end of liberal civilization is to substitute the criticism of ideas for assaults on people.”... the insidious idea that some words are a form of violence is spreading (almost exclusively thanks to the efforts of the Left). This rhetorical subterfuge may help shore up arguments for censorship of hurtful speech and de-platforming of controversial speakers, but any benefits this equivalence provides will not be worth the cost. If words can be a form of violence, then violence can be a proportional and legitimate response to words. Beginning with “violent” speech, an escalation of assaults and destruction can begin, with each offense providing justification for another violent episode by the opposition. As Gopnik continues, “the real social contract at the heart of liberal civilization is simple: in exchange for the freedom to be as insulting as you want about other people’s ideas, you have to give up the possibility of assaulting other people’s persons.”... When progressives work to dismantle the idea that everyone—regardless of how repellent their ideas—has the right to practice and preach, they are left in a difficult predicament when their favored groups hold less-than-savory ideas"

A Leftist Mob Attacked Me in Portland - WSJ - "Since last year, I have been targeted by Antifa and its allies for my critical coverage of their violent extremism. I’ve reported those incidents to the Portland Police Bureau, and in some cases I’ve identified suspects, but there were no arrests... The Homeland Security Department has described some of Antifa’s activities as “domestic terrorist violence,” but Portland recently voted to withdraw from the Joint Terrorism Task Force, citing concerns the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeted left-wing activists... At various points I was threatened, cursed at, and blocked from walking around. I ignored them. Police watched from a distance and did nothing.Later, a masked person approached me from behind, dumped the contents of a cup on my head, and ran away. The paper cup had an Antifa logo on it and was handed out at a “shake station” in the park. I immediately reported the incident to police. Officers told me they would not approach the suspect, who was still in sight, because that might “incite” the crowd. This is a refrain I hear every time Antifa harasses or attacks me with a Portland police eyewitness present. Policing in the city has become so feckless that neighboring county deputies are withdrawing or reducing their support for the Portland police. Minutes later, another “shake” was hurled at my face. It splashed under my goggles and went into an eye, which stung and obstructed my vision. Again, I reported this to police, who demurred... Minutes later, another “shake” was hurled at my face. It splashed under my goggles and went into an eye, which stung and obstructed my vision. Again, I reported this to police, who demurred."

Segments of Random Thoughts - Posts - New Day: "Journalist @MrAndyNgo says he was assaulted by Antifa during demonstrations in Portland."
New Day: ""Empire" actor Jussie Smollett was attacked in what Chicago police are calling a possible hate crime"
"Unlike the Smollett case, there's undisputed video evidence that Andy Ngo was assaulted by Antifa. This isn't poor or lazy journalism. This is deliberately misleading your audience who may not have the time to look into all the details. And it's evil."

Antifa Mob Viciously Assaults Journalist Andy Ngo at Portland Rally - "Andy Ngo, a photojournalist and editor at Quillette, landed in the emergency room after a mob of antifa activists attacked him on the streets of Portland during a Saturday afternoon demonstration.The assailants wore black clothing and masks, and were engaged in a counter-protest against several right-wing groups, including the Proud Boys. Ngo is a well-known chronicler of antifa activity, and has criticized their illiberal tactics on Fox News. He attended the protest in this capacity—as a journalist, covering a notable public event.According to Ngo, his attacker stole his camera equipment. But video footage recorded by another journalist, The Oregonian's Jim Ryan, clearly shows an antifa activist punching Ngo in the face. Others throw milkshakes at him... Throwing milkshakes at right-wing politicians is a tactic of British progressive activists that recently traveled to this side of the Atlantic. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–Fla.) was hit with one earlier in June. The tactic has its defenders in mainstream left-of-center media as well: Vox's Carlos Maza tweeted "milkshake them all" after a British activist hurled a milkshake at Nigel Farage.Portland police have claimed that some of the milkshakes thrown by the antifa activists on Saturday contained quick-dry cement. That may or may not be true. What is true is that an antifa mob beat up a journalist—one who is harshly critical of them, to be sure, but who posed no physical threat to them and was only there to document their activities—on a public street. This is indefensible, and yet there are tons of progressive-leaning people currently defending it, or at the very least rationalizing and making light of it.Antifa, of course, rejects the notion that violence should only be used in response to a physical threat. The group believes that the very existence of far-right people, groups, and ideas is a kind of provocation that justifies violence—against the far-right, and against their enablers"
It's quite amusing seeing some liberals claim that this is no problem, since the 'far right' is still worse. Apparently violence is only bad if it's the worst in class; when antifa finally kills someone, defenders will say it's no issue since the "far right" has killed more.
Perhaps worse is those claiming in all seriousness that a homosexual Asian is a Nazi/fascist, or those who say he's a "racist troll" and thus presumably violence against him is a good thing)

Gad Saad on Twitter - "Of course, people who belong to all political tribes can engage in violence but the hypocritical Left pretends that it is all loving and peaceful. They are the contemporary fascists.
Not that this should matter, but Andy is a gay Asian man. No outrage from progressives? I guess that he is not worth as much as Noble Victim @JussieSmollett. No outrage from @KamalaHarris or @CoryBooker? Why no tears for an actual victim of hate?"

“Antifa” as Antipasto - "Maybe the "anti-" in "antifa" doesn't really mean against, but is just the Italian prefix for "before," as in "antipasto" (or, it turns out, "anticipate"). It comes before the planned fascism, as a way of paving the way for fascism, as antipasto makes us anticipate the pasta. I mean, yeah, that prefix is usually rendered "ante-" in English, but fascism comes from Italian, so that must be it…. After all, it so well explains the many incidents we've seen; here's Avi Selk (Washington Post) writing yesterday about the most recent one, involving attacks on reporters (real physical attacks, not just verbal criticism)"

Why is the media promoting Antifa? - World Socialist Web Site - "At the same time as it is giving favorable coverage to Antifa, the Times, Post and other media outlets have collaborated with Google in the effort to suppress genuine left-wing opposition, including the World Socialist Web Site and other sites... The Democrats and affiliated media, particularly the Times, have sought to bury the basic class issues—the fight against social inequality, war, and authoritarianism—through the promotion of a series of diversionary issues... The promotion of Antifa conforms to this agenda. Indeed, many of the groups involved in Antifa are essentially factions of the Democratic Party"

Buzzfeed’s profile on Andy Ngo smacks of jealousy - "What is the point of a journalist trying to take down another journalist? Bernstein doesn’t attack Ngo for errors, for misreporting, or for any professional reason, but merely because he doesn’t like his style or his presumed ideology.As Claire Lehmann quite rightly points out, these kind of journalist-journalist hit pieces are likely to continue. It’s a symptom of the fact that the established outlets are rapidly dying. They don’t know what to do about it, or how to compete with the lean, hungry new outlets, so they attack. “As the media industry contracts, you will increasingly see journalists focusing their criticism on other journalists. Normal readers will increasingly switch off, leading to further contraction.”"

Logic, Empathy, Honesty - Posts - "When Jussie Smollett claimed to have been attacked by two right-wing MAGA types, he was interviewed by every major media outlet in the country, and spent days being treated like a victim, a hero and the final truth of the racism of trumps America.When it turned out to be a lie, there was no apology from the media, and no acknowledgement of how that blew apart the narrative they had clung to.This week, Andy Ngo, an Asian reporter for Quillette, was put in the hospital by violent left-wing thugs.Despite clear video evidence of the attack, and a common thread of violence that links 'antifa' to mainstream political violence and intimidation, I suspect Andy will not receive the same coverage, nor the adoration and praise in the media that Smollett was given.There is a powerful political agenda at play here that is becoming clearer to the people.The media will do anything to undermine Trump and downplay violence that makes the left look bad, while desperately looking for anything they can pretend proves that trump and his supporters are violent fascists.The worst part is that it is that exact behaviour that empowers and emboldens violence against trump supporters.The media are complicit in these attacks. Antifa are the militia of the left-wing, and the mainstream media it's propagandists."

MP on Twitter - "Self-proclaimed "journalists" who are trying to justify the brutal assault of Andy Ngo because they think he has the 'wrong' political beliefs are as bad as those who blame rape victims for wearing the wrong kind of clothing. Simple as."
"- White kid in MAGA hat smirks at Native American man
Media reaction: EVIL! WE MUST RUIN THAT KID'S LIFE!
- White ANFITA kids assault a right wing Asian man
Media reaction: No big deal. He asked for it."

Conservative Journalist Andy Ngo Beat Up by Antifa - "Ngo had been filming a large antifa march in Portland. Antifa had not secured a permit for the protest, which shut down multiple streets in the Oregon city."

Ricky Gervais on Twitter - "It's interesting that the people who believe that throwing a milkshake in someone's face shouldn't be considered assault are often the same people who believe that 'saying things' should be."

AntiFa, Terror Faction. - "When I last wrote about milkshakes (urgh), Twitter torchbearers for the left remarked upon what they insisted was alarmism on my part.When Burger King endorsed “milkshaking”, I warned it wouldn’t be long until hurling bricks soon followed. Little did I know AntiFa would turn the milkshakes themselves into bricks, as we saw this weekend in Portland, Oregon... The left knows its ideas are caustic at the ballot box, so they must resort to caustic measures of their own to literally beat the right. In doing so, AntiFa has attracted apologia and support from across the left spectrum. Leading politicians, mainstream news anchors, comedians, musicians, and college professors have leapt to AntiFa’s defense over the years... U.S. Democratic candidates, their fellow travelers in the media, and international politicians of the left have long attempted to defend AntiFa.Former Vice President Joe Biden launched his presidential campaign by praising AntiFa as “a courageous group of Americans.”The former Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party of America and Attorney General in Minnesota Keith Ellison endorsed the AntiFa handbook which encourages “militant” behavior. Its author Mark Bray recently said: “Fascism cannot be defeated through speech”.CNN’s Don Lemon has defended the group, while his colleague Chris Cuomo has come to their defense.To the network’s credit, at least one of its stars, Jake Tapper, has come out against AntiFa. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello took to Bill Maher’s show to encourage violence against perceived “Nazis”, and while Maher himself argued against doing it because it is unlawful, he repeated throughout the interview, “We all want them to be punched, we all want them to be punched”... AntiFa is a domestic terror group.The U.S. Department for Homeland Security has been warning of an emboldened hard-left since at least 2016... In documents obtained by the San Diego Union Tribune in April, it was revealed AntiFa activists were attempting to purchase weapons from Mexican drug cartels."

Did Andy Ngo get what he deserved? | Spectator USA - "When is it fine for an all-white gang to assault an Asian American in broad daylight? When he’s a conservative journalist. Where is it fine to do this? Portland, Ore. How do you do it? By all means necessary. The footage of Andy Ngo being ganged up on by black-clad, masked protesters in Portland shows the truth behind the cool slogans of radical chic. Ngo, a physically slight man, is punched in the face, has what appears to be a rock thrown at him when his back is turned, and is doused in milkshakes that, Portland police believe, contained cement mix, which can cause skin burns. It looks like a racist assault, but it’s alright, because they’re attacking a ‘fascist’. ‘Fuck you, Andy Ngo,’ one of his male assailants shouts.‘Fucking owned, bitch,’ adds another member of this group that boasts of its egalitarian and feminist principles. ‘What’s the matter with Portland?’ Andy Ngo asked in Spectator USA last November, after being insulted and intimidated while he tried to cover an earlier Antifa demo. ‘Why did I, a Vietnamese-American gay journalist, receive this reaction from a self-described anti-racist social justice movement?’The answer, Ngo wrote, was that he has tried to report honestly on Antifa — which, as Ngo wrote last year, is a ‘far-left movement of communists, socialists, and anarchists who agitate for revolution’, and who revel in ritualized violence against their enemies. If Ngo is not with them, he must be against them. And if he is against them, then he is a ‘fascist’ and deserves what he gets. This is the logic of ‘By all means necessary’, the moronic line coined by Malcolm X, and familiar from the Malcolm X t-shirts issued to liberal white Humanities’ students on their first day in graduate school. Typically, the t-shirt shows Malcolm X, carbine in hand, peering out of a window as he tries to protect his family. Not against white racists, but against his fellow radicals, the sectarians of the Nation of Islam who would eventually murder him. The story behind that image, and the false impression given it is reproduced without context, tells us everything we already know, or should know by now, about the radical fetish for violence. The revolution is built on a dream of purgative violence, and eventually it eats its children. Given America’s long history of political killings, it’s appalling, though not especially surprising, that those with a soft spot for Antifa’s cult of righteous violence appear to be justifying the assault on Ngo — rather than decrying it as an assault on his constitutional rights, and on what remains of America’s civic culture... ‘There are also serious risks involved with putting yourself in volatile situations,’ Warzel concludes. ‘Any journalist should know that.’ So Andy Ngo got what was coming because he wasn’t enough of a journalist for the legacy media, and was asking for it because he went to a bar in a short skirt. C.J. Werleman, who has been accused of plagiarism in the past, falsely accused Ngo on Twitter of being ‘one of the leading amplifiers of Islamophobia’ in the US and, again falsely, accused Ngo, who happens to be the son of a Vietnamese immigrant, of participating in ‘white supremacist instigated violence’. The implication being that Ngo got what was coming to him... Imagine the outcry if a CNN anchor had been attacked by the Proud Boys or some other group from the hooligan fringe of the right — a fringe group that had been endorsed by Fox anchors, as CNN’s Chris Cuomo has supported Antifa. Then ask yourself if it seems logical that Ngo would be attacked, and that left-wing media would rush to discredit him. The answer is yes to both questions. This is what we get when the media delegitimizes the opposition, and when it indulges violent radicals who demonize their ideological enemies as ‘fascist’. From there, it’s only a small step to silencing them by all means necessary."

The Media Claimed Andy Ngo Was Complicit in a Far-Right Attack on Antifa. But the Video Doesn’t Support That. - "It's been a rough summer for independent Portland journalist Andy Ngo: Antifa activists beat him up at a June 29 rally, and now many in left-of-center media have accused him of being complicit in a far-right attack that took place some weeks earlier.But despite widespread insistence that Ngo knew members of the far-right group Patriot Prayer were about to instigate violence, the underlying evidence is incredibly thin. At worst, new video footage reveals Ngo to be inattentive and preoccupied with his phone at key moments. This information strengthens concerns about the selectivity of Ngo's reporting, but falls far short of proving that he knew about a planned attack... Will Sommer of The Daily Beast wrote that Ngo "witnessed activists from the far-right group Patriot Prayer planning a violent confrontation" and that he was "standing next to the far-right activists as they planned an attack on their political opponents." His article was headlined "Right-Wing Star Andy Ngo Exits Quillette After Damning Video Surfaces," and carried the subhed: "The writer and photog is out of a job after being caught in incriminating undercover footage with right-wing activists. His former employer insists the two events aren't related." Sommer did not respond to my request for comment. What was so "damning" and "incriminating" about the video was largely unexplained, though Sommer did include a quote from Quillette Editor in Chief Claire Lehmann, who explained that Ngo's departure had nothing to do with the new video footage, and had been agreed upon by both parties some weeks ago. (Lehmann confirmed this to Reason.) Other media outlets followed the Portland Mercury's lead in asserting that Ngo clearly overheard Patriot Prayer planning violence, and smiled and laughed in response... The problem, of course, is that the video—which mostly depicts a small group of people standing around, discussing which side of the street they should walk on when and if they approach antifa, and conversing with the undercover Ben—proves no such thing. I have watched it from start to finish at least five times, and it does not even establish that the group of right-wing agitators planned an attack—let alone that Ngo was aware of such a plot. Indeed, the Portland Mercury article that received such rave reviews from The Daily Beast, Vice, Media Matters, and others makes little effort to explain what was so damning about the video, and Zielinski spends much of her article lionizing Ben's actions without offering any independent scrutiny of his claims. Ngo says she did not reach out to him before publishing the article, and she confirmed this in an email to Reason... The video does make it look like the members of Patriot Prayer were prepared for a fight—some do have weapons—and perhaps eager for one to take place. But it does not establish they intend to initiate a fight, and many of their comments could be understood along the lines of this is what we will do if a fight breaks out... Far from being engaged in conservation with Gibson's associates and intently involved in what they are saying, Ngo appears in the video only occasionally, and is mostly in the periphery, pacing and incessantly checking his phone. Ngo told Reason that he was scanning the internet for reports from other journalists pertaining to the earlier violence of the day, during which Ngo was punched in the stomach. He was much more interested in his social media feed than the conversations around him... It's one thing to criticize Ngo's reporting, and I agree with his critics that the singular focus on antifa's violence can create a false impression that they are always the instigators. It's quite another to imply that he is actively in league with antifa's enemies—a strong claim that is unsupported by the new video"

How I became an ‘extremist’ overnight | Spectator USA - "In disinformation campaigns designed to destroy a person’s reputation, lies are mixed with kernels of truth to make it difficult for even good-faith readers to discern fact from fiction. What is indisputable is that a selectively released, non-continuous video by a pseudonymous Antifa activist on a leftist blog shows me standing near right-wing activists on a street shortly before a brawl on May 1 in Portland. What’s false is the defamatory claim that I had knowledge of a violent criminal conspiracy. Alex Zielinski, the author of the blog post on the Portland Mercury, a left-wing alternative paper and site, never bothered to contact me for comment. The 18-minute shaky, first-person video by an Antifa informant using the pseudonym ‘Ben’ shows right-wing activists discussing going to a pub hosting an Antifa party after the May Day demonstrations earlier in the day. This video is the climax of two years of ‘Ben’’s ‘spying’ for Antifa. Some of the right-wing activists are recorded wearing helmets, tactical gloves, and goggles — gear adopted by both left-wing and right-wing protesters at demonstrations in Portland which often devolve into riots. I walked around the street the right-wing activists were standing on. I caught snippets of various conversations about how they would defend themselves, but not enough to piece together a full conversation. The loitering lasted much longer than what was released in the video. I did not notice one of the women holding a brick at one point. I was preoccupied on my phone, looking through Twitter for what other journalists had reported earlier about the protests where I had been sprayed with silly string and punched by Antifa militants. I also wasn’t the only photojournalist on the street. Three others milled around the area, including left-wing videographer Mike Bivins. At one point in the video, the right-wing activists joked about being ‘outnumbered.’ This is quite the understatement, as they are often countered 10-to-one at such protests. I smiled, thinking about the futility of these right-wing demonstrations in ultra-progressive Portland. The Portland Mercury writer falsely claimed that my faint smile was evidence I had knowledge of a planned fight. When people who are perceived to be right-wing smile, it’s often taken as sinister evidence: remember the Covington schoolboys. A viral post on Twitter took the lie a step further, claiming I was ‘laughing.’ This lie has been repeated unchecked in various ‘news’ stories. What the undercover video at the center of the controversy strategically leaves out is what actually happened at Cider Riot. ‘Ben’ believes his video is evidence of an obvious violent right-wing criminal conspiracy — yet he never bothered to call police. Instead, he called his comrades at the Antifa party. When I arrived at the pub with the other journalists, Antifa activists prevented us from walking freely on the sidewalk outside the bar. A woman from the pub approached me, saying mockingly that she had applied to my mother’s business for a job. A masked man next to her said the address out loud and they laughed at their own sick threat of a ‘joke.’ Weapons they had included a bat, brass knuckles and a bear mace... I retreated from the area, then began to record again while standing behind a van on the street. It was here that a masked person suddenly ran up and sprayed me point-blank in the face with a chemical that burned my eyes and skin... I have repeatedly reported what happened to me to the Portland police that night, but there have been no arrests in relation to my attack, despite several images being provided to authorities of at least one attacker. Six right-wing suspects, including Joey Gibson, have been arrested and charged in recent weeks for their alleged role in the brawl. Cider Riot is also suing most of the same individuals in a civil lawsuit for $1 million. ‘Ben’ claims in the interview on the Portland Mercury blog that, ‘There’s an understanding that Patriot Prayer protects Ngo and he protects them.’ This claim is baseless and false. The truth is, Antifa protected him while those who couldn’t be trusted to provide favorable coverage — including me — were attacked. In addition to my multiple assaults that day, a student journalist from Oregon State had his camera destroyed with a bat and was left bloodied by a beating by the bar’s Antifa patrons. There have been no arrests for that assault either."

Antifa Is Mostly Made Up Of Privileged White Dudes - "poll after poll shows us that the vast majority of far-left progressives are white. The intellectuals at Occupy understood and tried to address this, giving special treatment to the speech and ideas of their small cadre of non-white participants. The Black Bloc and Antifa take a different approach; they just cover their faces... At a time when many on the left are rightfully concerned about far-right white violence, why do so many seemed so nonplussed by far-left white violence, in most cases even refusing to acknowledge that that’s exactly what Antifa is?... The reason this point is so important is that it betrays a double standard that many in our media use regarding violent white activists. On the right, their whiteness is front and center; part of the toxic brew that stews their hate. But this is equally true of Antifa, which has its roots in the far left of the English punk scene in the 1980s.Antifa’s goals are not those of most non-white Americans. Most non-white Americans don’t want to destroy the systems of government, abolish the police, end capitalism, or cripple corporations. The group is absolutely trying to impose a style of anarchy that is steeped in (and almost unique to) whiteness."

This Liberal Carried an American Flag to Protest Fascism in Portland. Antifa Cracked His Head Open With a Bat. - "Paul Welch is not a fascist. He is a liberal who voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary, and for Hillary Clinton in the general election. On August 4, he attended a far-right rally in Portland, Oregon, as a counterdemonstrator intent on signaling his opposition to the "tacitly fascist event," he told The Oregonian.Tell that to Antifa: One of the masked militants attacked Welch, striking him over and over again with some kind of metal rod concealed in black cloth. One blow landed on his head, which caused Welch to immediately crumple to the ground. He would eventually need four staples to close up the gaping wound... two members of Antifa confronted him and demanded he hand over the flag, which they characterized as a "fascist symbol." When Welch resisted, they attacked him. The concussion landed him in the hospital for two days."
Presumably Americans who carry the American flag are fascists

Armed man attacking Tacoma’s ICE detention center killed in officer-involved shooting - "A protest outside the federal immigration detention center in Tacoma last year drew headlines when a 68-year-old man wrapped his arms around a police officer’s throat and shoulders in an apparent attempt to free another protester.When police got the man into handcuffs, they found a collapsible baton and knife in his pocket, leading to criminal charges.Early Saturday morning, that man, Willem Van Spronsen of Vashon Island, returned to the Northwest Detention Center, the holding facility for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, this time armed with a rifle and incendiary devices, according to Tacoma police.Police said Van Spronsen tossed lit objects at vehicles and buildings, causing one car fire, and unsuccessfully tried to ignite a propane tank... Deb Bartley, a friend of Van Spronsen’s for about 20 years, described him as an anarchist and anti-fascist, and she believes his attack on the detention center was intended to provoke a fatal conflict.“He was ready to end it,” Bartley said. “I think this was a suicide. But then he was able to kind of do it in a way that spoke to his political beliefs … I know he went down there knowing he was going to die.”She and other friends of Van Spronsen got letters in the mail “just saying goodbye.” He also wrote what she referred to as a manifesto, which she declined to discuss in detail but predicted would be taken by authorities"
What happens when people pretend that they're concentration camps for political advantage, and when antifa is allowed to beat people up and get cheered for it
Liberals will be saying he didn't kill anyone, so there's nothing to worry about and the true threat is still the "far right" (i.e. people posting memes online)

Shaun King - "Willem Van Spronsen just became the first martyr attempting to liberate imprisoned refugees from a for-profit detention center in Tacoma, Washington. He was shot and killed by police after he began trying to blow up empty busses and vehicles in the parking lot. His hero was John Brown -the white abolitionist who led the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. This is what our country has come to."
Comments: "Remember that Shaun said we have to dismantle these centers by any means necessary and now he says look what we have come to. Draw your own conclusions."
"Didn’t he toss an incendiary device at the building, putting all the immigrants inside at risk of great harm?"
"This is ridiculous, he was throwing incendiary devices at officers. You get what you give, this man was a home grown terrorist. Yea This, this right here is what our country has turned into. What is wrong is right and what's right is wrong."
"shaun king is now celebrating armed terrorists.it's time for social media to give him the alex jones treatment."
"Honestly, anything Shaun here says is worth less than the dirt stuck to your shoe.He's nothing but a tool who used the news and people like you to get ahead.Promotes violence and still thinks he's in the moral right.News flash. No matter the context, if you cause violence, your doing wrong. Period."
"Funny how Shaun encourages this sort of behavior but never participates in it."
"I can't believe that an active terrorist was shot dead. What has this country come to?"
"Again shaun king shows how dangerous extremism is... And the fact he applauds such a man is truly horrific"
"i don’t understand these “hate begets hate” comments. first of all, he wasn’t acting out of hate. hating inhumane power structures and the monsters who uphold them doesn’t count.the ruling class is going to continue pushing the limits of what we as a society will accept if we don’t pose an existential threat to them. nothing has worked so far. things are getting worse. what sort of strategy do you presume we use? people barely even vote. this guy wanted to end his life, and he thought that maybe he could inspire a revolution while he was at it.it’s better than shooting up a shopping mall or a church. at least he knew who the real enemy is."
There's only terrorism by the "far right" because when leftists do it, everyone pretends it doesn't count

Paul Joseph Watson on Twitter - "An Antifa terrorist radicalised by AOC and Ilhan Omar’s rhetoric literally tries to mass murder Border Patrol officials and the media’s still whining about Trump’s tweets. Let that sink in."

Paul Joseph Watson on Twitter - "So are we just going to pretend that a left wing terrorist who was radicalised by AOC & Ilhan Omar’s rhetoric trying to kill a bunch of border patrol workers didn’t happen? The media swept that under the rug pretty quick, didn’t they?"

Stefan Molyneux on Twitter - "Imagine how the Left would have reacted if the Antifa terrorist had been an armed Christian attacking an abortion mill."

More on the San Antonio ICE office shooting - "Here are the attacks on ICE offices just from this summer.
Aug. 13 – San Antonio, TX
July 16 – Washington, DC
July 14 – Tacoma, WA
July 12 – Aurora, CO
The next thing to note is that most of the media appears to be treating this shooting as a “local news story,” as we so often say... We have Democratic presidential candidates, “squad” activists, cable news anchors and editorials from major newspapers constantly demonizing ICE, calling for it to be abolished and blaming all manner of human misery on immigration enforcement offices who are simply upholding the law."

AntiFa, Terror Faction. - "When Burger King endorsed “milkshaking”, I warned it wouldn’t be long until hurling bricks soon followed. Little did I know AntiFa would turn the milkshakes themselves into bricks, as we saw this weekend in Portland, Oregon... Former Vice President Joe Biden launched his presidential campaign by praising AntiFa as “a courageous group of Americans.” The former Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party of America and Attorney General in Minnesota Keith Ellison endorsed the AntiFa handbook which encourages “militant” behavior. Its author Mark Bray recently said: “Fascism cannot be defeated through speech”.CNN’s Don Lemon has defended the group, while his colleague Chris Cuomo has come to their defense.To the network’s credit, at least one of its stars, Jake Tapper, has come out against AntiFa... The U.S. Department for Homeland Security has been warning of an emboldened hard-left since at least 2016.... In documents obtained by the San Diego Union Tribune in April, it was revealed AntiFa activists were attempting to purchase weapons from Mexican drug cartels... Ties between three key leaders of the Oakland group [names redacted] met in Hamburg with a leader of the AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] and the AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb]. The leader from AQAP is an Egyptian born male [name redacted] who is known to be in charge of finances and recruiting for the group.There is evidence from informants that he is helping the Oakland group acquire the weapons they are seeking, primarily bomb making equipment and toxic chemicals and gases.One of the men from Oakland traveled to Syria to meet with ISIS, the purpose was for training in tactics, but was thought to be primarily a bonding visit to discuss possible massive disruptive attacks on the U.S.While in Hamburg several of the Oakland based criminals were photographed throwing Molotov cocktails and wielding iron bars, which have been their weapons of choice, though they are almost certainly on the verge of upping the caliber of their weaponry for use in the U.S."