Andy Ngo's Unmasked

The following are extracts (for review purposes) from Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, Andy Ngo, 2021-February:

Chapter 3: Portland[, Oregon]

Send [i]n the Feds

"For the...four weeks [after] the Fourth of July[,] antifa's plan of escalating attacks on federal property to provoke a federal response for the cameras produced the exact propaganda they wanted....At its peak there were probably more than one hundred journalists and livestreamers, most of whom were sympathetic to the rioters and protesters. [A]t the urging or demand of others, their cameras were trained solely on law enforcement to capture their every move. Those [journalists] who ran afoul of antifa's rules were forced out or assaulted and robbed....

"Every use of force by officers, whether it be [by] tear gas, smoke, pepper...balls, or arrests, was heavily scrutinized. Out-of-context video snippets were released on social media and published by news outlets, generating mass rage and universally negative press for law enforcement and the Trump administration. The officers were called 'Trump's [G]estapo,' 'storm troopers,' and 'thugs' by Democratic politicians and the media.

"[The journalist] Erin Smith...says antifa use a 'calibrated level of violence' to provoke reactions by law enforcement for propaganda purposes.

" 'Antifa seek to force law enforcement into a dilemma action, where there are simply no good responses from a public relations standpoint,' Smith told me. '[All] choices undermine the legitimacy of the state and its security forces.' " – pp. 63–4

Chapter 4: Rose City Antifa

"Rose City Antifa (RCA) [is] the oldest antifa group in the United States. It takes its name from...'City of Roses,' a nickname for Portland[, Oregon].

"Antifa began accelerating their mass organizing in early 2017 as Donald Trump took office. [I]n June 2020, the public...received a rare glimpse into the workings of the group through a video release[d when] a journalist at Project Veritas who used the moniker 'Lion' was...conditionally approved to join RCA[.]

"Since 2016, we have been told...by biased media and antifa apologists that antifa is not an organization....While there is no single capital[-]A 'Antifa' organization with one leader, there are indeed localized cells and groups with formalized structures and memberships. Though officially leaderless, these are organizations by every definition.

"The RCA curriculum is modeled on a university course. Yet it includes training on how to use guns and do reconnaissance against enemies....

"RCA was founded in 2007 and is the first-known formalized antifa group in the United States using 'antifa' in its name. [T]hrough Lion's time in RCA, he learned that it was started by a Portland woman, Caroline Victorin (née Gauld). She has been in a long-term relationship with a Swedish national. Together, they worked to bring a tried-and-true European antifa model to the United States." – pp. 79–82

Chapter 5: Origin Story

"The militant far-left movement[,] antifa[,] ha[s] existed for over half a century in Europe. It has had decades to develop a coherent ideology and both violent and nonviolent strategies[,] to undermine liberal democracy under the guise of fighting fascism." – p. 98

The Weimar Republic

"[After] World War I[,] Germany was punished with crippling reparation payments[.] Emperor Wilhelm II's...abdication of the throne further threw the new nation-state into confusion. Between 1919 and 1920, [it] faced uprisings from both the left and right. In January 1919, around 50,000 communists...led a failed armed rebellion in Berlin.

"By August that year, a constitution was...adopted in the city of Weimar. But Germany did not have a democratic history or tradition, and the Weimar government was deeply unpopular.

"[T]hroughout the 1920s, political paramilitaries became the norm as groups and parties prepped their members to try to seize power[.]

"The paramilitaries were used as security for political gatherings and to violently shut down the meetings of opposing groups. The [R]epublic was marred with wave after wave of tit-for-tat political violence. The paramilitaries, both left[-] and right[-]wing, are notorious for carrying out assassinations and committing brutal acts of violence. Efforts throughout the 1920s by the government to ban some of the paramilitaries failed. They simply regrouped and reorganized under new names.

"Nearly every political group or party had a paramilitary: the communists, the centrists, and, of course, the fascists. For good reason, the most remembered of German paramilitaries is the [Storm Detachment (Storm Troopers, or SA, German:] Sturmabteilung[)], the original paramilitary of the National Socialist German Worker's Party, also known as the Nazi Party. Called 'Brownshirts,' based on the color of their uniforms, these paramilitary men were Hitler's violent street thugs.

"[T]he history of far-left paramilitaries in the German interwar years has faded [from] memory. Like the Nazis, the Communist Party of Germany (German: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, or KPD) had its own paramilitaries. The party was Stalinist in orientation and was closely aligned with the Soviet Union. At the national conference of the German Communist Party in 1924, they formed a new paramilitary: the Red Front Fighters' League (German: Roter Frontkämpfer-Bund). The league's paramilitary members had their own uniforms, and the group adopted the clenched fist as its symbol. Leftist groups today from Black Lives Matter to antifa have adopted that communist symbol.

"Throughout the 1920s, the Red Front Fighters' League was extremely violent, engaging in clashes with the paramilitaries of liberal parties. [A]gain[,] the communist paramilitary was mostly preoccupied with fighting liberals and socialists rather than the Nazi paramilitary. [T]he German Communist Party and its various offshoots viewed social democrats and liberals as 'social fascists' no different from Nazis. In fact, Communist International, the...Lenin-founded group that promoted communism around the world, believed that social democracy would inevitably lead to fascism....

"Despite claiming to be Germany's 'only anti-fascist party,' the German Communist Party sometimes worked with the Nazis to undermine the governing Social Democrats." – pp. 99–101

Antifascist Action

"In May 1932, the German Communist Party announced the formation of the Antifaschistische Aktion (Antifascist Action, commonly referred to as 'Antifa'), a new paramilitary communist group. This is the original 'Antifa' and the group that contemporary antifa around the world take inspiration from. The paramilitary was created to bring together a coalition of communists at the community level to oppose and fight political opponents.

"Though calling itself the Antifascist Action, those who served as decision makers on its executive boards consisted of members of the German Communist Party and other allied communist groups. Simply put, the Antifascist Action was a communist organization under a thinly veiled new name. It held rallies and developed its own propaganda. The two-flag logo used by today's antifa groups is based on the original red flags logo of the Antifascist Action. The two red flags symbolized the union of communism and socialism. Like the other communist paramilitaries before it, the Antifascist Action was involved in political street brawls. They also acted as security and self-defense for communists who lived together in select neighborhoods and apartment buildings.

"While the communists were occupied with fighting the social democrats and liberals, the appeal and power of the Nazi Party continued to grow. By July 1932, the Nazis became the largest party in [the] parliament[.] The campaign season was marred by exceptional levels of political violence between fascist, social democratic, and communist members....

"The German Communist and Social Democrat [p]arties were both banned, leaving the Nazis with no political opposition[.]" – pp. 101–2

Antifa State[-]Building

"German communists['] preoccupation with fighting the social democrats and liberals, who they called 'social fascists,' weakened a united opposition to the Nazis and further undermined the legitimacy of liberal democracy in the [R]epublic....

"While the Antifascist Action and all opposing groups were banned after Hitler became head of state, the antifa communist ideology never went away. [I]t was...institutionalized in the official state ideology of what would become...East Germany....For over forty years, the extremely repressive conditions in East Germany exemplified what 'antifa' state-building actually looks like.

"Through the East German Ministry for State Security, better known as the Stasi, citizens were monitored and spied on through a vast apparatus of informants who infiltrated all aspects of life and civil society. The secret police agency was originally modeled to be similar to the Soviet Union's secret police, the KGB. The Stasi's mandate by the state was to weed out political dissenters and to terrorize the masses into compliance, in addition to conducting espionage. Antifa groups today do something similar on a community level.

"Secret police form a pillar of communism....One could never know if their friend, family member, or spouse was an informant. In East Germany, the mass persecution and psychological warfare against its own citizens [being] suspected of political wrongthink were justified by the communist state in the name of fighting fascism. But to them, 'fascism' referred to the West and its governing system of liberal democracy." – pp. 102–4

"Like antifa ide[o]logues today who call for terrorist attacks against the state and its institutions, East Germany supported terrorism. Of note was the Stasi's logistical and financial support to [the] West German far-left terrorist group the Red Army Faction[,] also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, which was formed in 1968. Throughout the 1970s, they killed dozens of people in West Germany[.] The goal was to undermine the West German government, which they viewed as fascistic, as well as to oppose American 'imperialism.' In 1967[,] Baader-Meinhof Gang founder Gudrun En[s]slin declared[:] 'Violence is the only way to answer violence.'

"The rhetoric used by Baader-Meinhof Gang members is nearly indistinguishable from [the] language used by antifa extremists today....

"The misnomer of 'anti-fascism' holds steady today for contemporary antifa groups—they advocate...the overthrow of liberal democracies and the abolishment of capitalism. And the legacy of a pervasive surveillance culture provides one of the pillars for antifa activities." – pp. 104–5

Europe

"Today, the largest, most organized and violent antifa groups remain in Germany[.]

"Despite now having a strong, stable, and prosperous liberal democracy (Germany has the leading GDP in the European Union), the culture of polarized politics remains....Germany's domestic intelligence agency...released data showing [that] left-wing extremists have become more violent in recent years." – p. 105

Italy and Spain

"Argo Secondari, an anarchist, founded a militant anti-fascist organization in Rome in 1921 called the People's Daring Ones (Italian: Arditi del Popolo). The group included communists, socialists, anarchists, and anti-monarchists. They led fights against [Mussolini's] Blackshirts in various towns in the Italian countryside. These historical fights form part of the borrowed mythos used by contemporary antifa groups today. By fighting people on the streets of Portland[;] Berkeley[, California;] and elsewhere, they claim to be engaging in the same anti-fascist tradition....

"Antifa groups today also borrow mythos based on the history of Spanish anarchists and communists who opposed the nationalists...during the Spanish Civil War. Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, a member of the Communist Party of Spain (Spanish: Partido Comunista de España), popularized the slogan 'No pasarán,' or 'They shall not pass,' in a speech in 1936. No pasarán is still used today at antifa rallies and in graffiti messages." – pp. 106–7

Antifa in Europe Today

"Of particular note are parts of the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain and Neukölln neighborhoods in Berlin[, Germany.] The 'blind-eye' approach [adopted] by local governments allowed...radical far-left squatters [to] occupy abandoned property and land[, leaving] communities to fester for decades, resulting in the development of their own parallel societies where the authority of the state and the rule of law are challenged. Antifa in CHAZ attempted to turn Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood into a variant of this.

"Every year on...May Day, the inhabitants and supporters of these antifa-friendly neighborhoods turn violent. In July 2016, thousands of masked militants attacked police in Friedrichshain to protest redevelopment efforts in the area. They...destroyed shops[.] It took about 1,800 officers to bring the rioting under control." – p. 107

"Both the extreme left and right seek to undermine liberal democracy and the rule of law, whether through the use of violence or other means. They have differing political visions and goals, but both would result in the destruction of the liberties we value.

"[T]he threat of the far right is understood by the American public and actively countered by government, academia, media, and civil society. No comparable resolve or mass organization exists to counter the far left. Why? One explanation is the cultural dominance of the left. The political homogeneity in popular culture, academe, and urban centers of influence (e.g., New York[;] Washington, DC[;] Los Angeles[;] etc.) has produced a populace with severe blind spots." – pp. 108–9

Chapter 6: American Mutation

Critical Theory

"Antifa do not view their premeditated and preemptive acts of violence as 'violence.' It is part of the strategy of remaking words to have completely new meanings. But it also pulls from a left-wing philosophical tradition established by twentieth-century German philosopher and sociologist Herbert Marcuse....

"Born in 1898, Marcuse was a committed leftist all his life. As a young adult, he...voted for the German Communist Party. In 1933, he joined the Institute for Social Research, a think tank at Frankfurt University. [The Institute] is more commonly known as the 'Frankfurt School.'...

"One of the Frankfurt School's lasting legacies is the development of critical theory—the Marxist-inspired theory that undergirds all the various 'studies' disciplines in academe today. In short, critical theorists develop ways to 'criticize' perceived structures and systems of oppression in order to bring about radical change. It offers a heuristic for understanding all human interaction through power dynamics between groups....Colloquially, critical theory is sometimes referred to as 'cultural Marxism'[:] an application of Marxist theory to groups of people based on identity rather than class.

"Many dogmas of critical theory have become so mainstream in American academe and society that people don't even know the origins of those truth claims. Have you heard it argued that there is no such thing as objective reality and truth? Social-justice ideologues use this dogma to 'deconstruct' science[:] biological sex, for example. That's from critical theory. What about 'words are violence'? Antifa militants cite this to justify their violent behavior against opposing views. This is also from critical theory.

"Marcuse became known as the 'father of the New Left'...particularly through establishing the now far-left foundational belief that tolerance means actively suppressing 'intolerant,' usually right-wing, ideas....

"For decades, American academe has been marinating in Marcuse's ideas, spreading it to students who then form the next generation of politicians, leaders, and activists.

"Even stalwart civil[-]liberty organizations like the ACLU, now filled with members educated in this worldview, have been retreating quietly from their principle of defending free speech. In a 2018 document sent to members titled 'ACLU Case Selection Guidelines: Conflicts between Competing Values or Priorities,' the organization responded to the onslaught of resignations and criticisms it received after defending the right of the alt-right to march in Charlottesville.

"In August 2017, the ACLU supported Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler in his lawsuit against the city when it forced him to relocate his permitted rally. However, the [new] 2018 guidelines in response to left-wing criticism stated that 'a decision by the ACLU to represent a white supremacist group may...directly further an agenda that is antithetical to our mission and values[,] and that may inflict harm on listeners.'

"The mainstream left's retreat from [the] liberal values of free speech has worked to the benefit of antifa in every way imaginable....

"In 2020, the recurring theme from the left in response to mass BLM and antifa violence in the streets is '[p]eople over property.' Indeed, an author named Vicky Osterweil...was championed by the mainstream press for her book In Defense of Looting, published in August 2020. NPR interviewed Osterweil, who argued that looting is moral.

" 'The very basis of property in the U.S. is derived through whiteness and through black oppression, through the history of slavery and settler domination of the country,' she said in the interview with reporter Natalie Escobar. 'Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness, and of the police. It gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected. And also it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be.' This is verbatim what antifa say when they are asked to justify why they try to burn down businesses and homes. What the journalists, pundits, and intelligentsia don't understand is that at antifa riots, there is really no line between property destruction and assault. One bleeds into the other as they all serve the same purpose of chaos and violence." – pp. 123–6

"[S]tudents and outside[-]antifa militant groups work...hand in hand to carry out violence, threats, disruption, or harassment against targets at institutions that are supposed to uphold free speech and open inquiry. This close relationship is a unique development of antifa in the North American context. [W]hat is happening in the United States and Canada...recently demonstrates a unique cross-pollination of several radical ideologies: Marxism, anarchism, and critical theory....

"Intersectionality flows through American antifa. The revolution they are fighting for will not be led by workers but rather [by] trans, black, and indigenous 'folx' of color....

"The rise of antifa coincides with the rise of BLM. [T]heir mutual hatred of the United States has brought them together to form a powerful, dangerous union." – p. 127

Chapter 7: Black Lives Matter

"Black Lives Matter (BLM) cofounder Patrisse Cullors was interviewed in the Los Angeles Times [i]n August 2017[. S]he was asked if BLM would be open to a conversation with the president. She responded: 'We wouldn't as a movement take a seat at the table with Trump. [He] is literally the epitome of evil[:] all the evils of this country—be it racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia.'

"In her own words, one of the cofounders of BLM demonstrates how closely the organization's ideology aligns with antifa. Central to both is the goal of abolishing law enforcement, American jurisprudence, national borders, and free markets in the name of anti-racism and anti-fascism." – p. 129

Foundation of Lies

" 'Hands up, don't shoot' was a myth perpetuated by...Michael...Brown's friend Dorian Johnson....

"It wasn't just Brown who benefited from false narratives[,] but also other deceased or injured figures posthumously adopted as martyr[s] in BLM[:] for example, Trayvon Martin...and Sandra Bland.

"The most devastating consequence of BLM is that it provided the outlet for radical Marxist views to enter [the] mainstream American media, politics, and society under the guise of 'racial justice.' " – p. 131

Marxist Ideology

"BLM is usually presented as an anti-racist uprising and movement focused on countering anti-black police brutality and 'systemic racism.' This effective branding strategy in [its] name has masked BLM's true radical ideology....

"Indeed, on-record statements and writings...by the group's three founders, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, demonstrate their agenda[:] to mainstream hatred of law enforcement, capitalism, free speech, and the United States itself. If this sounds familiar, it is because these are also core ideological components of antifa[.]

"BLM is...a member of the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), a collective of radical left organizations that share the "BLM" agenda of overturning capitalism and destabilizing the United States.

"On its now-deleted page listing various demands, the M4BL had stated[:]

" 'Until we are able to overturn U.S. imperialism, capitalism, and white supremacy, our brothers and sisters around the world will continue to live in chains.'

"[A]ccusations of American 'imperialism' harken explicitly to the Cold War–era propaganda of the Soviet Union, which viewed U.S. imperialism not necessarily as an expansion of territory but [as] the spreading of liberal politics, capitalism, and culture....

"In April 2019, [Patrisse] Cullors, who is an associate professor in the Social Justice and Community Organizing master's degree program at Prescott College in Arizona, penned an article for the Harvard Law Review[:]

" 'Our task is not only to abolish prisons, policing, and militarization, which are wielded in the name of "public safety" and "national security," ' she wrote, '[w]e must also demand reparations[.]' " – pp. 131–6

Convergence

"James Lindsay, coauthor of Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody, pinpoints BLM as the vector that allowed social-justice activism on campuses to metastasize into a violent, virulent movement in the rest of American society.

" 'Black [L]ives [M]atter was enormously visible,' Lindsay says. 'It was everywhere, and presented as a matter of life and death.' Indeed, the urgency surrounding BLM pressured sympathetic liberals to tolerate and even excuse even the most illiberal excesses of the movement. From street protesters carrying signs and chanting slogans urging for police to be killed[,] to even instances of mass murder, BLM's legitimacy was protected by liberals....

"Through BLM, antifa ideologues saw an opportunity to be mainstreamed. Taking advantage of the urgency and panic, antifa were able to say that their militant actions were needed to address white supremacy and fascism.

"As the Republican Party base began to consolidate behind candidate Trump in 2016, BLM took to the streets to protest. It was during this time that an informal alliance developed between BLM and antifa. Trained in fighting and ready for battle, antifa militants acted as volunteer 'security' at BLM-style protests." – pp. 136–8

"[B]oth ideologies now cross-pollinate and influence one another to the point that they are linked[-]entities[,] with the same people showing up to each other's events.

"Their convergence has been immensely mutually beneficial. Antifa get mainstream legitimacy on the back of American racial divisions while BLM gets a volunteer militia at [the] helm." – p. 140

Chapter 8: Violence

Behind the Violence

"In an August 2019 on-camera interview with Rose City Antifa, NBC reporter Dasha Burns directly asked a masked member about the group's violent street actions.

" 'We see fascism as an inherently violent ideology, so when we disrupt its organizing, we see that as self-defense,' the man answered.

"[He] never referred to their militant actions as 'violence.' He was careful to label them 'self-defense'—even when the reporter asked him about antifa assaulting people with weapons and projectiles. This line has been carefully toed by Rose City Antifa since scrutiny was brought to bear on their actions following high-profile riots in 2017....

"Rose City Antifa posted in a statement on its Facebook [page] in 2017[:] 'Anti-fascism is, by nature, a form of self-defense: the goal of fascism is to exterminate the vast majority of human beings.' " – p. 154

Chapter 9: Deadly Violence

Connor Betts

"One man in Ohio who joined the chorus of antifa in calling Willem van Spronsen a 'martyr' was 24-year-old Connor Stephen Betts. He went on to carry out his own deadly shooting in a packed[,] commercial Dayton neighborhood on August 4, 2019. He killed nine people, including his sister, and injured twenty-seven others....

"Bett's shooting came within twenty-four hours of another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, that shocked the nation. Patrick Crusius killed twenty-three people, mostly Latinos, at a Walmart. Another twenty-three suffered injuries. The 21-year-old allegedly left behind a 2,300-word manifesto on [the I]nternet forum [website] 8chan[,] espousing racist and white nationalist beliefs. The entire punditry class picked apart Crusius's manifesto word by word to blame the shooting not merely on him but on President Trump, white people, and every American who supported border security.

"And before details were known about Betts's political beliefs, his mass shooting was also assumed to be related to white supremacy because he was white. For a few hours, we heard about both El Paso and Dayton and the crisis of white racism. But once it became known that Betts actually espoused militant antifa views, the Dayton shooting went down the memory hole....

"A year after the El Paso mass shooting, the hashtag #ElPasoStrong trended on social media. It was created to remember and honor the victims of the far-right shooting. Many media outlets published stories of how Latinos were affected. However, a day later, no #DaytonStrong campaign materialized. This wasn't any surprise to me. Some victims are valued more [highly] in the eyes of the American media than others." – pp. 177–81

Michael Reinoehl

"On August 29, 2020, three months into the daily violent protests in Portland, a 48-year-old volunteer security person for BLM-antifa killed a Trump supporter in [the] downtown [area].

"Michael Forest Reinoehl shot Aaron 'Jay' Danielson, 39, using a pistol at near...point-blank range after lying in wait for him around a street corner....

"The last few months...before...Reinoehl['s] deadly shooting show he was a violent man with no regard for the well-being of others. Over and over, authorities failed to prosecute or jail him, even when they had several opportunities to [do so]. This is the travesty in the killing of Danielson. It could have been prevented....

"Five days...after the killing, Reinoehl...emerged in a VICE News interview with [the] sympathetic left-wing journalist Donovan Farley....Reinoehl admitted to the killing, saying: 'I had no choice. I mean[,] I had a choice. I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn't going to do that.'...

"Reinoehl also admitted to being a fugitive, saying he was not turning himself in because he th[ought] police [we]re collaborating with right-wingers. [T]he rejection of police is a central tenant of antifa ideology. They do not allow comrades to cooperate with law enforcement." – pp. 181–8

Chapter 12: Information Warfare and Propaganda

"In my first year [of] covering the antifa beat, one of the things that shocked me[,] as much as [the] street violence[,] was the alternat[iv]e reality [the] local and national press presented on antifa.

"Video recordings...by independent media journalists...provide [an] uncensored look into antifa's extremism. Antifa know this and have made it a priority to keep out journalists[—]even releasing manuals on how to obstruct the work of unapproved press. [And] they've made key allies in the media[,] to counter negative coverage, amplify their propaganda messaging, and discredit their shared opponents.

"The American public has been inundated with nonstop propaganda that obfuscates and lies about antifa[:] simultaneously presenting them as anti-fascists fighting racism and [as] a figment of the right's imagination. How many people who have heard of antifa actually know [that] the movement is made up of organized networks of anarchist-communists who have the goal, training, and determination to overthrow the U.S. government?" – pp. 210–1

Fake News

"[T]he default position is to view antifa as the 'good guys.'...

"I think it is pure ignorance that leads news personalities like MSNBC's Joy Reid or CNN's Chris Cuomo to repeat some variation that 'antifa' is 'just short for "anti-fascist." '

"[S]omething different[,] is the existence of whole networks of writers and so-called journalists who intentionally spread pro-antifa messaging....Most do it as ideological fellow[-]travelers on the far left, but some...are actually members of the militant[-]antifa movement." – pp. 211–2

Unpersoning

"[A]fter my beating by antifa thugs in 2019[, a] number of journalists...began targeting me with such animosity and viciousness[,] that they were indistinguishable from antifa accounts. Journalists I [had] never interacted with[,] pursued me with an obsessiveness [that] I can only describe as a personal vendetta. Their goal has been not only to delegitimize me as a journalist[,] but [also] to make me a toxic figure that others would be afraid of associating with. They pursued that goal through writing lies and half-truths[,] and even inciting violence....

"The network of antifa-supporting journalists is powerful...because their smears are laundered [by] one another and amplified far beyond the original publication. The smears eventually become citations in a Wikipedia entry[,] or the first results in a Google search.

"Any [t]ime someone looks me up online, they will see the false smears first....

"Alex Zielinsky...has played an important role in normalizing antifa in Portland. [H]er coverage since she became the...Portland Mercury['s] news editor protects antifa, amplifies their talking points about 'fascists' in Portland, and joins in demonizing antifa's opponents. Sometimes this manifests in shockingly cruel ways." – pp. 212–5

"[A] cabal of messengers...work in media and have the ability to launder their narratives far and wide. The damage they've done in making the public ignorant and misinformed on antifa has been immense. But as left-wing writers in an industry run mostly by people on the left, their bias does not count against them." – p. 216

Identifying Antifa Press

"I did not like Trump's 2019 comment describing the mainstream media as 'truly the enemy of the people,' but one can see the basis for that sentiment when looking at how transparently [it is, that] extreme...far-left...ideologues are presented as the arbiters of truth....

"As [this book] demonstrates, antifa can terrify, dox, harass, and intimidate[,] without any [overt] use of force. They've been particularly effective[,] because they have infected one of the most important institutions of a free society: the press. Ironically, [the] media is now often used to undermine public support for free speech[,] and [for] the nation's norms, culture, and history." – pp. 218–20

Chapter: Afterword

My Story

"[Formerly,] I [had been] concerned with the material distractions of most youth[:] unaware of the culture, freedoms, and liberties that made society around me prosperous....

"My [M]illennial peers are often ignorant [of] the fact that in much of the developing world, conflicts still end in tit-for-tat clan violence[,] because citizens cannot depend on the state for justice....

"How ironic that decades after Mai and Binh[,] my parents[,] fled revolutionary communism, their son would encounter a virulent strain of th[at] ideology in their adopted home in the United States.

"[V]iolent masked revolutionaries...view...me as a 'reactionary.' Antifa's choice of language in describing me [in] that way echo[es] how my parents were labeled 'counterrevolutionary' by the Vietnamese regime and punished accordingly." – pp. 231–3

A Message to Antifa

"I...see [a]ntifa['s] humanity and [I] don't wish them ill. I...feel sympathy for [people] pulled and brainwashed into antifa's twisted ideology. They are often exploited and used[,] by a movement that explicitly rejects the value of individuals in favor of the cause.

"While some...antifa...are...highly educated and in white-collar professions[,] those [who are] involved in the street violence are disproportiona[te]ly individuals dealing with housing insecurity, financial instability, and mental health issues like gender dysphoria....

"Fear and hatred drive left-wing people to antifa's extremist ideology—but there is more[: t]hey have grievances that need to be acknowledged. [Yet even s]ome of [those grievances are] indoctrinated through education and culture....Grievance ideologies resonate with [M]illennials and Gen Z[.] I can understand why those who lose faith in the American idea—[or] in liberal democracy—[can] turn to extremist ideologies for solutions. The corruption in [the] politicians and state institutions at times rattles my own confidence in the American rule of law and democracy.

"For those who are vulnerable, antifa is more than appealing. It promises community, protection, and purpose. It is organized like a zealous religious movement through the constant feeding of ideology and propaganda. They believe a communist-anarchist world[-]utopia is possible. There would be no borders, police, prisons, racism, or fascism. All [human] material needs would be met through community mutual[-]aid, not through working in an exploitative[,] capitalist system.

"But the world [that] antifa envisions is a literal 'utopia.'...No society can function as antifa envisions. Their small-scale experiments at creating separatist[,] anarcho-communist communes...have ended in disaster and death. Even when their anti-fascist ideology was instituted at the state level (e.g., in the former East Germany), the result was the creation of a sprawling spy apparatus that monitored the public[-] and private thoughts of citizens for wrongthink.

"Antifa will continue to grow after this book's publication[. T]he ideology is mainstreamed and [has been] given legitimacy[,] through Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Party. Still, I urge compassion for those who have been drawn into this violent[,] extremist ideology. The hatred antifa feel toward their society, country, and fellow citizens comes from pain and resentment of their own lives.

"One of the most disempowering mind[-]viruses infecting America and the West[, to] the benefit of antifa[,] is grievance ideology. Through its control in every cultural and educational institution, it primes people to become perpetual victims. It makes them see grievance in every interaction. It turns pain and ignorance into hatred. It turns people into [apparent] oppressors. [The e]ffort...by the Trump administration in September 2020 to address critical race theory via an executive order to ban federal contractors from teaching the poisonous ideology is a good first step. But how do we address it in K–12 education? Higher education? The rest of society? What it will take[,] is the bravery to say, 'Enough!' Grievance ideology only has power[,] insofar as it is seen as legitimate[: i]t is not." – pp. 234–6

"The victory of real justice over antifa's version of 'social justice' requires people to be held accountable for their crimes. The systematic demonizing and weakening of police departments and law enforcement[,] across the United States[, has] emboldened BLM-antifa to destroy and attack with near impunity. Law enforcement need to be given access to the training and tools [needed] for crowd control. Prosecutors must prosecute....

"Antifa's ideology[—]or any extremist belief system for that matter[—]cannot be banned[,] per the First Amendment. Antifa have the constitutional right to espouse their hatred, as do racists and other bigots. I'm skeptical that additional legislation can be helpful[,] when there are already laws that can be applied. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act may be relevant[.] Antifa, regardless of what they call themselves, are an organized criminal network of groups....Organizers exchange money and resources with one another. They provide radicalization[-]training and instructions on how to commit crimes....

"Why are district attorneys, who are elected politicians, determining who gets prosecuted? They have every incentive to bow to the whims of the mob in order to stay in office. There must be better independent oversight[,] to hold rogue prosecutors accountable.

"The BLM-antifa narrative that police are murdering black and brown people in epidemic proportions needs to be thoroughly debunked....This should be the job of the media, but it has been they who fan the flames of racial division[,] through one-sided wall-to-wall coverage. The unending distraction from real issues[,] that c[ould] otherwise be addressed through evidence-based policy making[,] has us chasing shadows." – pp. 236–7

"On November 14, 2020, thousands of people from across the United States traveled to Washington, DC, for the 'Million MAGA March.'...As the participants dispersed...they were met by marauding gangs of Black Lives Matter and antifa black bloc counter-protesters.

"They pushed and punched people to the ground. They hit them with sticks. Diners eating outside at hotel restaurants had projectiles and mortar explosives thrown at them. No one was spared. Those targeted included women, children, and the elderly....

"During the 2016 presidential campaign, people leaving Trump rallies in liberal cities, like San Jose and Chicago, were stalked, robbed, and beaten....

"I am grateful for this country and its Constitution....My family came from a society where there is no tradition of freedom of speech or the rule of law....

"Tragically, what I see is that it's becoming taboo to be patriotic or grateful to one's nation. Americans have been robbed and assaulted in public for merely holding symbols of the United States. As the George Floyd–inspired rioting broke out in Portland at the end of May 2020, I saw a mob of so-called racial justice activists beat a man peacefully carrying an American flag in [the] downtown [area.]

"Antifa, its far-left allies, and [its] useful idiots have convinced the public that patriotism is synonymous with racism and fascism. I reject that and call for all decent people to do the same. As much as this book is about antifa, it's also a letter of gratitude to the nation that welcomed my parents[:] penniless refugees from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, to become equal citizens.

"Antifa seek to destroy the American philosophy and the [actu]al state itself. They are finding some success. For those who are drawn to their siren calls of 'anti-racism'[,] 'anti-fascism'[,] and 'equity'[, just] look to where their ideas have been put into practice. [There, n]o one inherits a utopia[,] or [even] civilization." – pp. 237–9

Copyright (c) 2022 Mark D. Blackwell.