Antifa Doesn’t Exist

Someone posted this question to Quora: “Is Antifa left-wing fascism?”

Here’s my response:

haha.

First and most importantly, “Antifa” doesn’t exist. There is no organization called “Antifa.” There is no organized leadership structure for a formal or informal organization called “Antifa.” The word “antifa” is just an umbrella term used by the FBI [1] to describe a large number of anti-fascist groups that are unrelated to one another. Some of them are community groups who fight fascism with bake sales. Most of them are. A few might actually use violence at times. But there is no one organization called “Antifa.” That’s another right wing lie.

There’s no proof that any of the violence during the George Floyd / BLM protests in the summer of 2020 were carried out by a centralized organization called “Antifa.” Show me the arrests and court cases. Show me who those people in masks were. The FBI focused its interest in antifa and the 2020 riots on the city of Portland, but that was it, and it wasn’t clear to them at the time how many people were members of any anti-fascist group or held to any clear anti-fascist ideology.

Next, since “antifa” is short for “anti-fascist,” it’s a bit contradictory to ask if antifa is a kind of fascism. But I think that’s just sloppy language on your part. I will rephrase your question in the best way possible and then answer that version of your question.

Here’s the way you should have written the question: “Is Antifa left-wing authoritarianism?”

That version of the question makes a lot more sense. Now, let’s think through these terms, and then I’ll answer your question.

First, we need to distinguish between political systems and economic systems.

Democracy, monarchy, totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and anarchy are all political systems, or ways of structuring (or not) political power (often meaning literal force) in a society.

Capitalism, socialism, and communism are kinds of economic systems, and there are a variety of kinds of all of these.

“Left” and “right” refer to relationships to traditional values and traditional social structures. The “left” tends to be progressive — it’s willing to change anything to benefit the population. The “right” tends to be “conservative,” wanting to preserve traditional social structures and relationships.

Progressive vs. conservative then is a relationship to whatever was going on before in any given society. Capitalism and democracy would be progressive in a longtime authoritarian communist regime, for example, while communism would be progressive in relationship to a monarchy or oligarchy.

Literally any political system can be joined to literally any economic system. You really can mix and match, and historically, they have been mixed and matched.

Fascism under Hitler was authoritarian, totalitarian, and capitalist. The Nazi Party started out as a socialist party, but Hitler hated socialism and Marxism. He kicked out the socialists early on then went after them aggressively before he even went after Jewish people.

However, the Soviet Union and communist China were communist, authoritarian, and totalitarian.

In contrast, much of Europe is democratic and socialist. Bernie Sanders is democratic and socialist. He probably sees socialism as economic democracy.

So your question really is if Antifa is like the Soviet Union or communist China. Since it doesn’t exist, no. But even if it did, no.

Being opposed to fascism just means being opposed to fascism, and that means being opposed to authoritarianism as well. The anti-fascist people here in the US are trying to preserve democracy, not end it.

When Trump lies about the 2020 election, and he still is to this day, he’s trying to end democracy. He’s still doing that. He’s the only real fascist out there, and since he’s holding the office of the president, we should be worried about that.

When Trump lied about Obama’s birthplace (for five years), once again, he was trying to invalidate the outcome of an election, as you need to be a “natural born citizen of the United States” in order to be eligible for the Office of the President. He was trying to undermine democracy with racism: no one who is black and named “Barack Hussein Obama” can really be American.

Yeah, Trump is fascist. Antifa is not.

If you had any doubts and missed the link above, according to the Library of Congress, antifa is not an organization: https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0032624

[1] The 2022 “Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism” only mentions “antifa” twice: once by a single individual identifying himself as antifa who was engaged in political violence then shot and killed, and once when someone on the right shot and killed someone he believed was a member of antifa. The term does not appear in any other data on domestic terrorism provided by the FBI.