Antifa is a straw man used by some on the right to create a false equivalence (“yes, we may have some extremists demonstrating about confederate statutes but the left has antifa!” or “everyone is criticizing the white nationalists—why isn’t anyone criticizing antifa?”).
First, democratic and liberal leaders have clearly and forcefully condemned antifa as well as those who commit violence for some supposed left-wing rationale. Check out Pelosi: Pelosi condemns ‘violent actions’ of antifa protesters and Sanders: Bernie Sanders Condemns Threats Against Ann Coulter Speech At Berkeley But the right wing is attempting to create false equivalence here by arguing “everyone is attacking the neo-nazis, why aren’t people also attacking antifa?” Well, that’s bc there is no equivalence. They aren’t really that aligned with the left (some are the equivalent of the British YOBS back in the soccer violence days of the 80’s), they’re a fringe, and they aren’t that widespread: Are 'Antifa' and the 'Alt-Right' Equally Violent?
I defy you to find any former Democratic President or any national office holder with a democratic or left affiliation who is arguing that “there are good people” in antifa or that “violence is justified in dealing with the right wing.”
You’ve got this common refrain from many on the right (Coulter, Hannity, many others) that “the alt-right is being criticized for ties to the KKK and Nazi Party but no-one is criticizing democrats for ties to Antifa!” That’s b/c 1. The democratic party and leadership doesn’t have ties to antifa and 2. The democratic party and leadership has condemned violence as a form of speech (rather than try to argue “well, the other side was violent too!”) and 3. the KKK and American Nazi party are not defendable. Trying to argue that there are some “good people” in there is a feeble effort at false equivalence.
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