Opinion

Supported by Christian conservatives and their Republican allies:

• Torturing and murdering a journalists who stand up against repressive regimes, because it would cost us a weapons deal
• Taking money from veterans to fund a tax cut for the rich
• Taking money from the poor, disabled, and elderly to fund a tax cut for the rich
• Defending rapist frat boys and mocking their victims
• Defending neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and beating or murdering those who stand against them
• Racism
• Misogyny
• Homophobia (I know the old testament is against homosexuality, but Christ said, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone"
• Child molesters (remember Ray Moore?)
• Supporting tyrannical dictators
• Suppressing votes of minority and poor voters
• Refusing to help victims of natural disasters
• Selling hatred and divisive rhetoric
• Taking healthcare from 24 million people
• Attacking civil rights of almost every disadvantaged group
• Locking immigrant children in cages and giant, for-profit tent camps; failing to take steps to reconnect the children with their parents
• Pushing people into a for-profit prison system, for...well...profit
• Unnecessarily polluting the soil, water, and air
• Institutionalized lies, deception, and propaganda to the point that basic facts are now irrelevant in politics
• Mongering hatred towards liberals, woman, minorities, immigrants, and almost every other non-white, Christian group
• Refusing birth control to women, then refusing abortions, then refusing healthcare or financial support for the children you forced to be born -- ensuring a swath of children with preventable health and developmental issues.
• Supporting greedy billionaires over those in need
• Supporting rhetoric that leads towards violence against women, immigrants, and minorities

Basically, if you call yourself a "Christian" and a "conservative" you have two choices: 1) stop supporting Republicans, the alt-right, and Fox News, or 2) quit desecrating everything that Christ (as presented by the Bible) stood for, and admit that you represent opposite of what Christ stood for.

One of the few things that Christ (as presented in the Bible) was actually "hateful" towards was hypocrisy. If you are a conservative Christian supporting Republicans and the mainstream religious right, and you are correct that Christ is the Son of God, there is a special place in hell waiting for you. But hey, you got to spend some years feeling powerful by supporting evil people who pandered to the worst part of your character. I really hope you are right about God and enjoy an eternity of hellfire, you fucking hypocrite.

Do you ever wonder about people who drape themselves in the flag and claim to be “patriots”, but don’t seem to value democracy, The Constitution, or their fellow Americans? It seems the less a person supports the pillars of democracy, the louder they cry “American First!” and the more red, white, and blue accessories are on their clothing, houses, and vehicles.

It is written off as ignorance or as tribalism, but subconsciously, they know they aren’t patriots. Just like a man obsessed with “size” who needs to build large towers with his name in gold letters all over the world, they are overcompensating. Most in the flag-waving crowd aren’t patriots, they are nationalists. Patriots love and are devoted to their country. There is an implication of being willing to work and sacrifice for the country.

Nationalists, on the other hand, are willing to sacrifice country’s laws and ideals for their nationalist agenda. They do not want personal sacrifice for love of country. They want others to sacrifice for the gain of the nationalist group. Nationalist sent members of the KKK to congress in the early twentieth century. Nationalists put Hitler and Mussolini in power. Although the words “patriot” and “nationalists” are treated as overlapping, most nationalists are not patriots. Nationalists attack their county’s laws and Constitutions. Nationalists attack their fellow countryman. Patriots defend the things nationalists attack.

Many conservatives hide what they are by pretending to be the opposite. Homophobic, anti-gay conservative leaders who turn out to be gay themselves. Conservative leaders who tout “the sanctity of marriage” are often men who have affairs and a history of divorce. The flag waiving crowd of conservative is no different. They aren’t patriots, and deep down, they know it. They wave the flag more and shout “America” louder, hoping no one will notice the truth: they don’t give a damn about America.

They don’t want to pay taxes. They don’t volunteer in their community. They don’t care about The Constitution, except of course, the second amendment. They try to destroy the separation of church and state. They cheer attacks upon the pillars of democracy - our courts, the free press, and education. They attack immigrants in a country where nearly all of us of come from immigrants. They claim to support our troops, but they won’t pay to take care of our veterans. They don’t want to help their fellow countrymen. They don’t even want to work to improve their own lives. They just want to blame liberals and immigrants for their own problems.

Until Charlottesville, one thing conservatives and moderate liberals could agree on was criticizing Antifa. The best thing I read about Antifa after Charlottesville was a non-violent protester who said he disagreed with their tactics, but after witnessing Antifa defend non-violent protesters, decided to stop criticizing Antifa. Cornell West said without Antifa intervention, his group of non-violent protesters would have been crushed. The internet is full of similar reports.

Fascists promote violence, discrimination, totalitarianism, and murder – on a national or global scale. That isn’t a judgement, an exaggeration, or an attempt to insult them – it is what fascists support. People who doubt what fascism stands for need only to look at the fascist countries of the twentieth century. All were totalitarian and murderous. No neo-Nazi has every claimed to reject to historic evils of fascism. There are no “reform fascists”. Instead neo-Nazis proudly wear the swastika and reference Hitler.

Antifa groups do not support discrimination, totalitarianism, or murder. The oppose these things, but they are willing to engage in violence as part of that fight. Neo-Nazi rhetoric regularly includes reference to killing Jews, Muslims, people of color, and liberals. Antifa rhetoric just promotes punching Nazis.

Fascists and white supremacists target people based upon color, nationality, orientation, and religion. Antifa opposes people based upon behavior.

A common accusation against Antifa is that they cause and encourage violence. That is sometimes true, but Charlottesville proved that violence from the right occurred without instigation from Antifa. The first night, right-wing protesters trapped clergy in a church and beat non-violent protesters with their fists and torches. The next day, they charged and hit unarmed protesters, nearly beat an unarmed man to death, and rammed a speeding vehicle into a group of counter-protesters. They would have done the same if Antifa was not there. Likely, they would have preyed upon the unarmed and peaceful protesters more.

I have been at marches where Antifa was present. When they show up, I have two main reactions. I feel that it is a bit more likely that someone will be arrested, because Antifa does push the boundaries of a protests; and I feel safer, because I know that if neo-Nazis show up to cause problems, Antifa will intervene. I have not seen Antifa be violent at any march I have attended. I have seen them cautiously escort a troublemaker away from a rally.

Gun toting conservatives started going to intimidate non-violent liberal protesters over a decade ago. Neo-Nazi protests are usually heavily armed. The NRA is encouraging gun owners to go after liberal protesters. Right-wing extremists and racists have been murdering people of color and anti-racist protesters since the civil war. Antifa does not drop to any of these levels. Having a group actively stand up to right-wing violence may reduce the intimidation and violence. Charlottesville certainly showed that we can’t count on the police.

Neo-Nazis are bullies. Sometimes the last hope to stop bullying is to punch the bully in the face. I don’t support violence, but mainstream liberals need to consider that in an era where police stand by while fascists beat non-violent protesters, and The President justifies neo-Nazi violence, maybe we need Antifa. While I believe that we will push back the rising tide of neo-fascism, what if we don’t? These are fascists we are opposing. Were there German liberals complaining about the tactics of anti-fascist groups in the thirties, right until Hitler seized power? Like the Charlottesville protester said, we don’t need to support their tactics, but maybe we should stop criticizing Antifa.

So, you’re an alt-right weasel internet troll, and you’ve been shouting (online, in all-caps) for years about how people just needed to hear your message. You and your buddies have spent years thinking that white America was going to jump on your hate-train. You just had to get the message out. Your manipulative leaders said the same, but they knew that they needed to repackage their hatred to make it more acceptable, which is why they chose to call themselves “alt-right” and not a more honest term, such as “neo-Nazi” or “white supremacist” or “wannabe Klansman”.

Trump came along and pandered to, you while surfing your wave or racism and hate to The White House. That emboldened you, and your movement has been gunning for a fight ever since. You’ve been descending on cities in mass to have “free speech” rallies, armed with bats and knives and guns. You have intentionally targeted notoriously liberal cities, like Berkley, where you knew you would get a fight. You took those fights, played victim like the most cowardly wife-beater, and made the fight you picked look like liberals were violent and stomping on your rights. But you really didn’t get the attention you wanted.

You finally had your day in Charlottesville. You caught the nation’s attention. You showed us who you are. One of your own murdered a woman, and the rest of you made excuses. You terrified and attacked non-violent protesters, including clergy and venerable civil-rights activists.

Your leaders and Trump making excuses for you. You whined and played victim once again, for another fight that you picked. As usual, you claimed non-violence despite the videos of you attacking people unprovoked and shouting that you were “ready to kill them”. As usual, you claimed you are not neo-Nazis after shouting “Jews will not replace us”.

This time, it went far enough. You got the attention you wanted. The world saw clearly who you are: violent, clueless, hateful, racist, fascist, deceptive, petty, and murderous. And they saw you for the cowards you are when held accountable for your deeds or challenged by people with moral strength. They saw you pull off your racist T-shirts to hide from retribution. They saw you crying on the internet because you may go to jail. And you spent years calling us liberals “snowflakes”.

The fallout has been a massive mobilization of anti-racists sentiment. Your web sites are losing their hosts. Facebook is banning your hate speech. PayPal and Apple are refusing to process payments for you. In the days after, in many cities, more people marched in opposition to you – in each city -- than you could muster for “the biggest white power rally in two decades”. Trump may stick by you, but even super-conservative Republicans are speaking out against you. AirBnB has banned you. Spotify has banned you. Your crying poster-boy has lost his OkCupid account. You supposedly went to save a Confederate statue, and now Confederate statues are going down all over the country.

You wanted the world to see you. They did. They just realized how disgusting you are. Maybe it is time that you and your remaining supporters realized it too.

This is not a coincidence. All in all, seventeen states have had some sort of a proposal like these. I am not saying it is a conspiracy, but it is a series of overlapping acts of malice, including:

• State legislatures proposing legislation to decriminalize hitting protesters with vehicles. Don't think that the "unintentional" clause in some makes it innocent - right wing media immediately justified the Charlottesville murder as "because the driver was scared", and the Charlottesville police initially said the driver "lacked malice"
• Police officers and right-wing figures have made statements about "how to get away with hitting protesters with your car"
• And now we have an actual vehicular attack and murder against innocent protesters by a right-wing extremist

These all go together, and they are about intimidating and punishing protesters. Many of these laws are considered reactions to anti-Trump protests, but in truth, mosts were directed towards Black Lives Matter - not that totalitarian or racist motivations make much of a difference in the effect of legislation designed to limit freedom to protest and legalize harming protesters.