Counter-Currents
1,938 words
Antifa terrorism is not a Right-wing fantasy. It’s all too real after last week. A lone anarchist attacked an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Tacoma, Washington. The armed anarchist launched explosives at ICE vehicles before he was gunned down by security. The only fatality was the terrorist himself.
The attack was an escalation of antifa’s tactics in America. In the US, most antifa violence only occurs at public demonstrations and involves physical assaults. They rarely engage in the home invasions and car torchings that their comrades in Europe routinely carry out. They have also kept their violence – with some exceptions – limited to private citizens they consider fascists. American antifa have not really attacked government facilities or workers before.
69-year-old Willem Van Spronsen changed that last weekend.
The new attack should not be surprising. Antifa violence has been ignored or even justified ever since the day Donald Trump took office. The media continues to melt down over ordinary immigration detention facilities and Trump’s alleged fascist tendencies. The hysteria has already inspired acts of violence, and the derangement only gets worse. Antifa attracts plenty of mentally ill people who need little encouragement to rampage, and they know journalists and politicians defend their assaults and doxing. They see how ICE is compared to the SS. They know they can test their luck with terrorism and be greeted by silence or support.
Van Spronsen will not be an outlier. We are going to see more attacks like his, and it won’t just be ICE facilities that will be targeted. We could see cars belonging to Right-wingers torched, people beaten outside their homes, and even assassination attempts. Antifa is emboldened and unafraid of serious state retaliation. They know white liberals fantasize about “punching Nazis” and blowing up ICE facilities. The anarchists make that fantasy a reality for their sympathizers. This support base can be relied on to look the other way while the state does nothing.
Antifa is the greatest domestic terror threat in America.
Even though Right-wing terrorism is now considered the greatest threat in America, the violence associated with it is rare, revolting to 99.9 percent of Americans, and condemned by nearly all White Nationalists. Indeed, such violence resembles mass shootings more than traditional terrorism, which has definable goals and a base of support. It’s usually committed by mentally ill lone wolves without the support of any organization or community. It’s an eruption of depravity that ends in nothing but meaningless loss of life.
By contrast, jihadis are supported by numerous groups and a significant part of the Muslim population. Similarly, antifa has the support of numerous groups and a significant part of the American population. Many prominent antifa figures defended Van Spronsen’s terror attack. The anarchist organization CrimethInc., which is behind the popular antifa website It’s Going Down, released a statement which read in part, “We understand why Willem Van Spronsen decided to give his life to interrupt the violence that is perpetrated against undocumented people in the United States every day.” They didn’t encourage others to follow suit, but they did say that more people should have met fascism with violence in the 1930s. (Even though many people actually did.) The statement continued:
Let no one say it is “violent” to attack the infrastructure of ICE and the mercenaries who maintain it. The real violence is the complicity of the Good Americans who do nothing as their neighbors are disappeared, just like those Good Germans who choose to ignore what was being done to their neighbors in the 1930s.
It then praised Van Spronsen:
Willem Van Spronsen chose to think for himself. He took personal responsibility and did what he could to put an end to what he recognized as injustice. He did not use the Nuremburg [sic] defense to excuse his actions the way that every police officer and prison guard does. In those regards, what he did was heroic.
The article also included an honorary icon of Van Spronsen and his rambling, incoherent manifesto.
Columnist and Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King declared Van Spronsen a modern-day John Brown. “Willem Van Spronsen just became the first martyr attempting to liberate imprisoned refugees from a for-profit detention center in Tacoma, Washington,” he declared in a tweet that has since been deleted. “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.”
King praised the manifesto as a “beautiful, painful, devastating letter,” and insisted the terrorist wasn’t crazy – “inaction is.” The columnist all but endorsed terrorism against ICE facilities:
His actions will be called terrorism and people will call him crazy, but neither are true. His mind was very clear. He is now “arm in arm with John Brown.” These camps must be shut down.
Teen Vogue labor columnist (yes, that exists) Kim Kelly also defended Van Spronsen’s “act of righteous sabotage,” and compared him to Second World War partisans. “As Van Spronsen and the many other heroic comrades before him have made clear, there are many ways to fight back against a violent fascist regime,” she tweeted. “Perhaps it’s time for more of us to put our thinking caps on.”
Prior to the attack, Van Spronsen’s group, the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club, received glowing media coverage. CNN aired a fawning segment on the group in May. The CNN host, W. Kamau Bell, said that they were the “good guys,” and wondered why more white people didn’t join them. He tweeted to his many followers that they should do “what they can to support” the Gun Club. Besides the attack, the John Brown Gun Club has stalked, doxed, and intimidated several Right-wingers. CNN says this is noble and that more white people should do it. The Gun Club commemorated Van Spronsen’s death and hoped he would rest in power.
Antifa as a general movement has received glowing coverage since Charlottesville. Even Republican lawmakers defended their violence against dissidents. There were more apologists for their violence just last month, when the Portland black bloc assaulted an Asian reporter; they claimed that the journalist deserved it for critically covering them.
These comments and coverage would be unthinkable in the wake of “far-Right” terrorism. Right-wing terror apologists would receive instant bans, loss of employment, a knock on the door from the FBI, and universal condemnation. No such thing has occurred for antifa. Only the conservative media has covered the above comments – and Kim Kelly is still Teen Vogue’s labor columnist. The mainstream media and their liberal base don’t care that Left-wing extremists now support terrorism. No; they agree that ICE runs concentration camps and that the agency needs to be abolished. The mainstream media reported sympathetically on the attack in its limited coverage, evincing the larger sympathy white liberals have for antifa.
No one from antifa condemned the terrorism. No mainstream media outlet voiced concern that the act will inspire copycat violence. No lawmaker called for hearings about domestic Left-wing terrorism. Only the Right cares about it. Mainstream journalists care far more about the mean tweets of Right-wing trolls.
Antifa and white liberals may seem to be opposing factions: the black bloc says it hates capitalism, laws, and order – all things which benefit white liberals. However, antifa does not target capitalism or institutions liberals value; they only go after white liberals’ enemies. ICE now stands in those ranks. Even though it is a government institution, liberals feel it is a rogue agency undeserving of the respect they give to other parts of the state. It would be a major news story if antifa attacked a State Department facility; liberals would demand a federal crackdown. ICE, however, does not enjoy that benefit, because it actually defends America and its people. If it is justifiable to attack ICE, just imagine the lack of concern for Right-wingers who get firebombed.
It can never be repeated too often that antifa are the establishment’s attack dogs. These self-described “anarchists” are coddled because they do the liberals’ dirty work. The liberal elites want Dissident Right events banned and ICE officers harassed. Antifa is more than happy to oblige. Antifa violence does not advance anarchism; it advances elite interests. Antifa is a tolerable presence to the powers-that-be. So long as their targets are the same as those hated by the center-Left, they can get away with murder – literally.
Many on the Right like the idea of challenging antifa on the streets. That hasn’t worked out well over the past two years. Sure, there were some Proud Boys who knocked some antifa out, and the Leftists (temporarily) fled from the Battle of Berkeley, but that didn’t really help the cause. The Proud Boys were indeed effective fighters against antifa, but the group is in shambles due to those confrontations. Unlike antifa, the Proud Boys lack the financial resources to defend themselves in court, as well as the media and community support they need in the public eye. A few pro-Trump outlets praised them and shared their videos, but that didn’t result in goodwill or action when the Proud Boys needed it most.
It is undoubtedly true that the negative results would be far worse for identitarian fight crews. The little conservative media support they get now would disappear, and the Department of Justice would prioritize their prosecution. A better use of resources and energy is to work to expose antifa members in the same way that they expose Right-wingers. These people wear masks for a reason. Naming and shaming them adds pressure to antifa associations, and may convince some Leftists to cut their involvement. Antifa are paranoid about protecting their identities. It’s a vulnerability savvy Right-wingers could exploit to deflate the movement. Identifying antifa will also help ensure Left-wing assailants do time for their crimes.
While this is one idea for identitarians to focus on, the real hope is for the state to bring the hammer down on antifa. If the group ramps up attacks on government facilities, you can expect the Trump administration to do something about it. While journalists won’t care, the feds will. Their attacks might be enough to get the group classified as a domestic terror group and for federal agencies to dedicate resources to their suppression. It would be a serious blow to their movement if a dozen black bloc members were hit with unimpeachable federal charges.
Antifa terrorism may also radicalize Middle America. If they see politicians being attacked and government buildings torched, they will not think moderation is the answer. Middle Americans will demand a strong state response and view Leftists as their mortal enemies, not as fellow countrymen. Left-wing violence polarizes the nation and chips away at the center’s façade of civility. And the “Nazi” slur will lose its power if cops, soldiers, federal employees, and Trump voters are all called that and in turn deemed worthy of assault. If Middle America feels threatened, they certainly won’t turn to Mitt Romney for salvation.
Antifa terrorism is a danger to the country and our movement. In the near future, we will see American Leftists emulate their European comrades by undertaking more aggressive actions. German antifa plans to hunt down and assault known Right-wingers next week. We could very well see something like that in America. This escalation will make life more difficult for our movement, but also backfire for antifa.
As Van Spronsen learned, the American state will not tolerate violent attacks against it. The media coddling of antifa will in fact encourage them to be more reckless and stupid – and eventually, it will come back to haunt them.
Antifa won’t remain untouchable for long.
18 comments
“The real violence is the complicity of the Good Americans who do nothing as their neighbors are disappeared, just like those Good Germans who choose to ignore what was being done to their neighbors in the 1930s.”
I’m reminded of that “Prof.” Ward Churchill (an Injun) who was fired after asserting no sympathy for the “innocent” victims of 911, since everyone in the building, all the typists and vending machine mechanics, were “little Himmlers.” Today I suppose he’d get a show on MSNBC.
“It would be a major news story if antifa attacked a State Department facility; liberals would demand a federal crackdown. ICE, however, does not enjoy that benefit, because it actually defends America and its people.”
Yes, ICE actually does its job, protecting White America. The State Dept. is in the hands of our (((enemies)))
ICE actually do prevent slaving and human trafficking. One of the very few useful law enforcement units around.
It’s marvelous the left and Jleft have launched into an insurgency. Communists and Anarchists taking pot shots at Conservatives, Fascists and Nazis. Nothing like that level of organized violence exists in the right. Sure we have individual nutcases but the hard left are going to go to fucking war enmasse. This is how we can win.
If the left picks the Immigration and Customs enforcement agency as a legit target (the guys who actually deal with smuggling and kidnapping and trafficking) then they are dicking with people who actually do good. These agents actually deal with huge numbers of human trafficking cases and do catch bad guys.
White genocide is inevitable. You will be replaced.
Hush! Shame on you!
I’ve never understood why Antifa’s attacks haven’t spurred civil lawsuits against these individuals. With a lawsuit comes discovery, where litigants could uncover the sources of Antifa’s financial support. Yet nothing ever materializes on the legal front. Very odd.
They have as little funding or formal structure as possible precisely so they can avoid as much exposure as possible, and avoid infiltration. Plus, these people typically have a lot of personal issues and are not good at organization real organizations.
Antifa has it’s modern roots in the European autonomous anarchist/Marxist tendency from the 80’s—“autonomous” from parties, unions, and any formal organization. They use affinity groups as the basic unit and they practice extreme forms of “security culture” to probe(and control) new people let into their circles. They are always very suspicious and make people work hard to be let in on any conspiracy to commit violence.
Antifa work as independent cells of fanatics; they do what they do because they like violence and destruction against people and things which they blame for their own problems.
BUT we absolutely NEED some sort of anti-antifa infrastructure in order to identify them — NOT a group to fight them in the streets, that’s a losing strategy, but a network of the New Right dedicated to ID’ing them so that legal and/or civil action can be taken against them at the individual level.
If you engage in antifa activity, you’ll be held accountable — This shall be our watchword!
This is an important point. To identify these thugs will help to counter them. From occasional accidental identifications one can tell that they come from all walks of life, from the adolescent ruffian to the college professor. I remember that such an individual was identified about two years ago in Berkeley after he hit someone in the head with a padlock and then fled. It was possible from the footage of the event to follow his trail to his home college (I think it was in Bakersfield). He lost his job over it. Anonymity is their shield, and when it is breached they can be held accountable.
When it starts, and it will begin sometime, the civil war will not be civil, but it will be quick. The NRA”s children’s choir could clean up Antifa by nap time. The cities full of racists will be isolated and rioting by noon the first day. Begging for help from the police that they now pelt with insults. Good times, good times.
Why doesn’t ANTIFA demonstrate in right to.carry states?
Antifa just one faction, here’s another at random of the banksters’ leetle helpers:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/07/16/treat-extinction-rebellion-extremist-anarchist-group-former/
And over here, you’ll find various posts intended to discredit him, and in part they may be true, but the point remains…
https://twitter.com/out_of_lives/status/1151789011062722560
Some not so random thoughts…
* The left supports and normalizes its terrorists: Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela, the Black Panthers, and now the antifa ICE attacker. The left can do so since it has an apparatus of activists, media, academics, lawyers and corporate foundations which will provide cover for any amount of its violence.
* In the last several years we have seen the left perpetrate violence against the dissident right, against Trump supporters, against conservatives on campus, and even against law enforcement (the ICE attack being the latest). This is on top of the various IT de-platformings. But the Conservatism Inc-Republican response has been anemic at best, with little in the way of arrests, lawsuits, street actions or enforcement of RICO, etc.
* Conservatism Inc probably sees the dissident right as a greater threat than the radical left. Why? The dissident right has the potential to lead a mass defection away from Conservatism Inc and into a really effective nationalist-populist movement. Thus, conservatives can tolerate attacks on the dissident right because those attacks are removing the competition.
* From at least the time of Richard Nixon until the early 2000s the US has conducted various wars against crime and terrorism. These wars seem to have come to a de facto end (domestically) with the second Obama administration and the rise of Black Lives Matter (BLM). Consider how Mayor Daley’s CPD put the baton in on the leftist protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, or the overwhelming (if belated) law enforcement/military response to the 1992 Rodney King Riot. Then compare that to the de facto stand down orders for police when faced with the antifa storming of Milo’s speech at UC Berkeley, or the BLM riots which have pillaged quite a few neighborhoods.
* What does law enforcement think of all this? Law enforcement officers have been the target of BLM/antifa harassment, doxxing, rioting and terrorism (cf the 7 July 2016 shootings of Dallas PD officers). Is law enforcement being thrown to the wolves by politicians and politicized district attorneys?
* Why has the Trump administration taken little serious action to crack down on the leftist groups which have perpetrated violence against its own supporters? Is Trump isolated in the Oval Office, surrounded by a Deep State apparatus which works for its own separate agenda?
* Part of the dilemma is that it is not enough to crack down on the leftist street actors. The real threat is the apparatus behind the activists (again, the reporters, academics, lawyers, etc.). And behind the apparatus are whatever entities pay the activists’ bills. As long as that apparatus is operational, it can recruit replacements for whatever street activists are arrested … and possibly pull the strings on the politicians and police chiefs.
* All of which indicates that for leftist terrorism to be countered, the right is going to have to form its own networks of media, campus, legal and etcetera activists. And build alliances among the various dissident right and national populist movements. Easy enough to say this online, of course, another to do it IRL.
There is probably a long campaign ahead, but a campaign which can be won if its nature is understood by the dissident right and nationalists…
This is how you beat antifa. Do a mini documentary on a right wing young white man. Show him with his family, friends, and neighbors.
Then film him walking up to a violent abtifa mob with arms held up in peace. As they cut him down, film the entire thing. Then get a close up of his girlfriend, wife, or mother weeping over his bloodied body. A few guys like that will do a lot to delegitimize antifa and the mainstream media that supports them.
“The mainstream media reported sympathetically on the attack in its limited coverage, evincing the larger sympathy white liberals have for antifa.”
Some evidence the media are de facto propagandists for antifa:
Patrick Forscher and Nour Kteily of Arkansas and Northwestern, respectively, report a correlation of -.36 for Alt Right trust in the mainstream media and +.44 antifa trust in the mainstream media. Antifa know the media will equivocate about their attacks and report that “violence broke out,” or “rocks were thrown,” etc. They know the media will vilify only the alt right.
If I were Richard Spencer, I wouldn’t have met with Lacy MacAuley because she mentally ill and not too smart, but if needed to do so, I’d demand that the reporter and she sit on the opposing side of the table together rather than have the reporter stand in the center and pretend to be moderator because effectively the two work together. The mainstream media has around 50% liberal Jewish executives and the DNC gets 50% of its money from liberal Jews, and I imagine antifa gets at least 50% of their money from liberal Jews. They are all part of the same kosher brand. Products brought to market.
The left has a way of making you look bad by dragging you into the equivalent of a Jerry Springer Show involving physically violent and mentally hysterical people (antifa) or John Waters styled freaks who do not think accurately enough to make a coherent point (ContraPoints) or who rely totally on primitive social shaming techniques/reputation bullying. If the left can drag your brand down to such depths then you’ll be seen as a sideshow freak too.
The left knows that if we debate their finest intellectuals we will defeat them because truth, justice, and beauty are on our side. That is why they do everything to deplatform us and try to delegitimize us. This way, they win contests against us without having to to engage with us.
“Antifa won’t remain untouchable for long.”
Well, let’s see…the Muslim Brotherhood was supposedly going to be classified a terrorist org, yet that hasn’t happened. Antifa is minor league by comparison, just beating up people, rioting, property destruction, etc. BLM got away with that level of destruction for years plus killed people (Dallas police), and nothing was ever done.
Go back to the 1960’s/1970’s and the Weather Underground lunatics and others who were actively working to overthrow the country. What happened to them? Nothing. They are now tenured professors in academia living off the public teat.
I have very little hope at present, nor any indication to be hopeful, that anyone in our government is going to do anything other than look the other way.
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