Posted on 05/11/2018 8:33:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The alt right is struggling to hold itself together. It’s dealing with infighting and money problems, and some of its leaders have decided they can’t risk holding events that are open to the public. One reason for that is antifa, the anti-fascist activists best known for punching Nazis but who also engage in digital counterintelligence, infiltrating white nationalist message boards and chat rooms to find out who they are and what they’re doing.
In late April, anti-fascist activists camped out in the woods of rural Tennessee the night before the American Renaissance conference, an annual gathering of white collar white nationalists who try to put an intellectual sheen on racism. They hoped to get the conference cancelled, or at least make it unpleasant for attendees. For some, it did not matter if some of the tactics they used were seen as unethical. In the conference’s hotel parking lot, they’d seen a car with a license plate that referenced Zyklon B, the chemical used in German gas chambers in the Holocaust.
“They're proud of things that cost millions and millions and millions of deaths. It makes them happy. And I don't feel bad for ruining their f*****g weekend,” an activist who goes by Naya told VICE News.
"You're a badass"
The brutality of these particular activists’ physical violence contrasts with the sophistication of their intelligence gathering. Much of that is done through catfishing. Specifically, “pretending to be a girl,” an activist called Junto said. They create female identities on social networks where white nationalists congregate like Gab and VK, and give them praise. Lines like, “‘You're a badass.’ ‘You're so good at what you do,’” Junto said. “‘Teach me.’ ‘How do I be a part?’ ‘Where can you pick me up in a parking lot?’” He explained, “That's using their misogyny against them. They can't quite fathom that they could ever be duped by a female.”
The weekend before, several of the anti-fascists campers had been in Newnan, Georgia, to disrupt a neo-Nazi rally of reportedly less than 30 people. But it was in Michigan in March they experienced what Junto described as the “most successful operation we ever had.”
Prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer had successfully sued to be allowed to speak on a few college campuses, but his speech at Michigan State University did not go well. He ended up speaking to a couple dozen people, many of them journalists, in a dreary building that held livestock auctions. The anti-fascists fought off a line of white nationalist supporters.
The night before, the anti-fascists say they figured out where the white nationalists were staying, paid a hotel worker for information, and booked a room across the hall. They got in car chases. Matthew Heimbach, then head of the white supremacist Traditionalist Workers Party, confirmed to VICE News that nails were thrown in front of their cars, and popped their tires.
A few days later, Spencer cancelled his college tour. "Antifa is winning to the extent that they are willing to go further than anyone else,” Spencer said in a video posted on YouTube. “In terms of just violence, intimidation, general nastiness, they are willing to do things that no one else is willing to do.”
Rough tactics
Naya admitted it was possible there were people among the anti-fascists who were there to do violence for the sake of violence. How do they weed them out? “We don’t,” he said. He does not worry that that could mean the movement was morally compromised. Asked whether violent people might create a backlash, Naya said, “I don't know. I honestly don't know. ... I mean that's a possible eventuality. But at the very least if that were to happen hopefully we would have beaten them and then Nazis don't organize anymore and they go away forever.“
But in a way, violence has made face-to-face interactions with white nationalists harder. Police are better prepared. In Tennessee, the American Renaissance conference appeared to go on as planned. It was hard for the anti-fascists to know, because they weren’t allowed in the building. They were limited to a protest pen across a road that was filled with police. A sniper was on the roof. Naya and Junto briefly entertained the idea of an amphibious assault, because a triathlon was happening in the same park that day, and the swim portion was in a lake behind the building. But it was deemed to risky. “You don’t win every battle,” Naya said. But, “I wouldn't I wouldn't feel right tomorrow morning if I hadn't been here.”
Junto said that Spencer’s decision to quit kept him motivated. “To see it visually come from the mouth of the f*****g leader of those fools… To say 'I give up.' I mean he was probably is the most prominent and most widely accepted within the alt right... And he gave up,” Junto said. “That's what we're there to do. Our entire, our goal isn't to, you know, beat people up, break s#*+, or do violence. Our goal is to make them quit doing their s#*+. And so every one of them that falls apart and quits or gives up, that's a huge victory.”
Must be nice to get paid to make crap up.
“I take it that by “alt. right” they really mean you and me.”
No one is shooting back at them. Yet.
It will be a freezing cold day in hell before a Nazi fascist disarms me. I don’t care if he/she/it is wearing an Al Qaeda/ISIS mask or not. You come at me and you’ll be a “good” fascist (Dead). You can take that to the bank, Spanky.
Antifa is fascist to the core. They are the same street thugs the Nazis used to intimidate the opposition and would use the same tactics freely given the chance.
The American Renaissance conference went on as planned because the state met its responsibility to keep order. They did not give people “room to destroy.” They were kept well away from the conference. We missed the freak show starring Vermin Supreme. These delusional leftists are well behaved when they are confronted from a position of strength. Spencer made a mistake by backing down because the next speaker will confront people inflated by their victories. When violence erupts the authorities prosecute the right to the max. Leftist are often given a pass. Leftists know nothing of history: “They’re (the right) proud of things that cost millions and millions and millions of deaths.” No ideology has caused more deaths that progressivism.
“They’re arming up and we had better do the same.”
They’re way behind the power curve on that one.
Your color alone makes you a White nationalist.
The only way to be!! :-)
They are going to get a nasty lesson in reality. The streets will run red with their blood.
“...Every time I stop by, he shows me a gun he just bought.”
Reminds me of a bit if sage advice I heard decades ago (source unknown)...
“Weapons should be felt, not seen”
That same mantra probably goes for bragging rights on types and amounts of weapons that each person might have in their possession, and could even extend to how much ammunition you’re storing up. It is wise to be discreet and such matters.
I lived about a mile from where they hold the conference for many years and I’m wondering where they ‘camped’. Those folks around White Bluff, Tn. wouldn’t like to have Antifa hanging around. Of course TN has been overrun with Hipsters so who knows.
Better go buy another couple of bricks of 7.62.
and .22 for Practice!
Huh?
Despite their name, they are fascist.
If it quacks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, it’s a duck.
Typical leftist, seemingly fighting what they already are.
You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. That is exactly what they are, and if history is any guide, physical protection outside the law for the Trump supporters in both parties will be right along.
Nope. This is who they are.
These people are the Nazi’s and Commie’s of our time. There is no line they will not cross. There is no moral compass to keep them in check. If they could away with it, they would put a pistol to the back of the head of everyone on this thread.
They would also be armed. Put the myth out of your head that the left is not armed and doesn’t know how to use a gun.
That myth is not IN my head. I just hope our side has more and better weapons than their side.
Just my opinion, but I think we have been in a low grade war with these slime bags, for a long time. I just don’t think our side has physically joined the fight yet. Will we ever join the fight? I don’t know, but it seems to me, that sooner or later, some guy is going to decide he has had enough, and have a “falling down” moment. Their side already has, with the congressional baseball thing, plus the Las Vegas thing.
The examples you cite are not from organized antifa. Pollack was not necessarily a lib. One of my best friends manages a very big gun store. By his reckoning his customers are 40% lib and they are taking training classes. Many vets have joined antifa and are training them also.
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