It appears the US congress has just proposed (edited) a bill that declares “Antifa” a terrorist organization.

This doesn’t even make sense as Antifa isn’t an organization, but just a shared name for anyone that self-identifies as a person opposed to and willing to fight fascism 🤦‍♂️

Stay safe out there!

Note: SLRPNK is an EU based service and we are openly Antifa here, and proudly so!

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      “Antifa are the real fascists. We need to end the menace of foreign sponsored radical leftists. The tankies would be worse” is a thing conservatives routinely say to get liberals to follow along with henious state violence

      • expr@programming.dev
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        28 days ago

        Except calling people “tankies”. I had never even heard the word before joining Lemmy.

        • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
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          28 days ago

          They don’t seem to be very common elsewhere, but the lemmy devs are tankies, and mostly made it for their tankie friends (and probably weren’t overly thrilled when we normies migrated from Reddit), so they’re disproportionately represented here, even after most of them barricaded themselves inside lemmygrad.

          • expr@programming.dev
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            28 days ago

            I’m aware yeah, just saying that it’s not a term really all that well-known outside of these circles.

            • I’ve learned about it on Facebook like a decade ago. Also seen it used in places like twitch.

              But in all the cases, it’s been within leftish circles, never people on the right (by US standards at least).

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          28 days ago

          It’s been a term liberals have kicked around since the 1950s. I remember Ron Paul types using it to describe Obama voters as far back as 2008. “You’re going to force Christian doctors to do abortions at gunpoint” was a popular talking point.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              13 days ago

              It was coined by British Trots to describe Internationalists who failed to condemn Stalin’s occupation of Eastern Europe. Western liberals adopted the terminology to describe any form of insurgent anti-colonialist movement or its supporters. Eventually, it became a tag-line for American activists and politicians writ-large.

              • amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                13 days ago

                where can I read more about Trotskyists coining it? also, what are the “anti-colonialist” movements you speak of?

        • poVoq@slrpnk.netOP
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          28 days ago

          It seems to be spreading. Much to my surprise I recently read the term in an opinion piece in a relatively mainstream online news site. But it might have been written by a fellow lemming.

  • samus12345@lemm.ee
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    28 days ago

    The purpose of targeting an organization that doesn’t exist is that anyone who opposes the state can be labeled antifa, and therefore a terrorist.

    • JollyBrancher @lemm.ee
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      28 days ago

      Guess I really need to pay attention if we have a “Tread of Fascists” flag hanging up then. Somehow it’s potentially legally worse than a Confederate flag in the US? My poor, Union ancestors and very heavy U.S./Pennsylvanisch Deitsche ancestry.

      • samus12345@lemm.ee
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        28 days ago

        It is, but just as an example of “one chapter” of it. Anyone opposing them can easily be said to be Antifa as well.

        • ContinueToServe@lemmy.world
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          28 days ago

          It is, but just as an example of “one chapter” of it. Anyone opposing them can easily be said to be Antifa as well.

          💯

          Check out our backstory here: https://continuetoserve.vet/

          I can assure you, we as an organization, have been trying fully understand the context and implications of this since this came up under the first T’ administration. Its a threat but it shouldn’t stop you from considering your next steps and actions, which is exactly what they intend for it to do. The biggest mistake we, the royal we, as a resistance can make is to be caught flatfooted.

  • HenchmanNumber3@lemm.ee
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    29 days ago

    Important detail: It isn’t a bill that’s been passed. It’s only been introduced and referred to the judiciary committee. It’ll be bigger news if it gets out of the committee, goes to the floor, and gets passed.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    Lookin’ good America.

    We should elect more people that do things like this instead of passing legislation to help struggling Americans.

    But, oh no, we already told the party with a voting history proving they do that on a regular basis to go fuck themselves and elected people who want to label ANTI-FASCISTS terrorists instead while releasing 1,500 actual terrorists who performed an actual terrorist act back into our society without serving their time.

    Clown country.

  • fxomt's on dbzer0@lemm.ee
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    29 days ago

    those poor fascists 😢

    istg these new policies sound like they were made by a 11 year old conservative - except they’re from an 80 year old fascist.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.netOP
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      29 days ago

      Apparently they are actually written by an intern with the help of ChatGPT 💩

      • fxomt's on dbzer0@lemm.ee
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        29 days ago

        at this point id believe that. its only been a couple of days after his inauguration and destroyed all his ties to other countries, revoke nb’s passports and accelerate the gazan genocide

        beyond parody

  • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.vg
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    29 days ago

    The vagueness is the point. Vague laws transfer the power to those who enforce it (ACAB) who get to decide if that law applies in that case.

    It’s the same strategy used by the Spanish inquisition. Who’s a witch? Keep it vague, and that answer becomes fully arbitrary and dependent on different social factors (such as people trying eliminate others and take their land by using such accusations). It also encourages everyone else to “signal” that they’re not whatever the bad label is… as a precaution. Preemptive antiantifa. This is basic conservative society shit.

    We saw the same thing since 2020 with the right-wing turning mask wearing into a signal for “weakness & femininity” and “leftism”, and large numbers of conservatives decided that it was better to get COVID-19 and long COVID. Note that this wasn’t STATE controlled, but it wasn’t organic either, it was more of a private astroturfing phenomenon.

    I’m not sure what the solution is, and I doubt that it’s just one single thing, but I’d love to see some ideas.

    • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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      28 days ago

      It’s the same strategy used by the Spanish inquisition. Who’s a witch?

      The Spanish Inquisition was aimed at heretics (Jews, Protestants and Muslims), not witches.

  • Etterra@discuss.online
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    29 days ago

    So antifa has a leader and a headquarters now? Is there a secret handshake? Dang. Nobody tells me anything.

    • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      20th century fascists actually delivered on their economic goals, at least temporarily, to get enough popular support to override rule of law. These 21st century fascists can’t even get that part done before they took the mask off.

  • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
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    29 days ago

    Maybe we just call ourselves “antfash” and if they ask we are just really into dressing up ants?

    • Cenotaph@mander.xyz
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      29 days ago

      They don’t care about the letter of the law, only putting people that disagree with them in prison.

    • Chakravanti@monero.town
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      29 days ago

      When arrested, simply state, “Oh, no. You misunderstood! I’m totally anti-fashion and have absolutely nothing to do with those sorts you’ve clearly mislabeled me to by mistake!”

    • psyklax@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      29 days ago

      Hmm. Could you reverse psychology it? “Antifa were the real fascists, so we decided we’re just going to call ourselves fascists.” And what would they do? Write a law declaring fascists to be terrorists?

      Jokes.

    • winterayars@sh.itjust.works
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      28 days ago

      The problem is they’re going to decide who is and is not antifa. If they say you are, then you are. And if they say antifa are terrorists, then they are. Something like this is the end result in the “war on terror” stuff from the early 2000s. Or, alternately, “anything I don’t like is woke” except they’ll send the cops and/or feds to crack your skull or just straight up kill you.

  • RangerJosey@lemmy.ml
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    28 days ago

    Go for it. There’s no such thing as antifa outside the minds of chuds. There’s no organization. No roster of “members”

    It’s just people who are anti-fascist as a principle. And every living WWII vet.

    • excral@feddit.org
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      28 days ago

      That won’t stop them from branding any opposition as a member of antifa to justify terrorism charges. This is alarming because it is a step in systematically suppressing opposition.

      • laranis@lemmy.zip
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        28 days ago

        Ding ding ding. Winner winner. The fascism playbook requires persecution of an “outside” group. Antifa is a backup if immigrants doesn’t work. Or if they don’t like someone who isn’t an immigrant.

        My money on the first person prosecuted under Antifa-as-a-Terrorist-Org rule: AOC

        Any guesses?

      • GhostedIC@sh.itjust.works
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        28 days ago

        Yeah, such as people going to antifa meetings, people wearing antifa symbols, people posting they support antifa online and then proceeding to join protests in person from an antifa Facebook or discord or telegram group, then starting fires.

        You really think claiming to be a headless organization is just a get out of jail free card?

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          28 days ago

          “I’m a pacifist, I wear pacifist symbols, support pacifism online, and I joined a protest advertised on a pacifist Facebook group.”

          Pacifism isn’t an organization. There are specific pacifist organizations that could individually be targeted, but there’s no such thing as the “pacifism” organization, any more than there’s a general “antifa”.

  • Iceman@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    This is why you don’t let the nazis organize freely. They will always do what you should have done to them. Even when they had Trump on actual crimes they made sure that he would get the best possible chance to get away with it.