What if I told you 'Antifa' virtue signaling is NOT the same as 'fighting nazis?' | Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

Aug. 15, 2017

You already know about Charlottesville. You don’t need me to repeat what’s already been repeated a million times more than was ever necessary. I have no clever 140-character synopses to offer. No witty memes or GIFs. But I do have a crucial suggestion:

Look at the image at the top of this article and say out loud: The “counter-protestors” were not “fighting Nazis.”

Here’s more from social media:

Say this out loud, too: The “counter-protestors” were not “defending the streets from fascism.”

Since I know I have to do this, please allow me to introduce what should be obvious: 

• I despise Nazis and fascists. 
• I deeply mourn Heather Heyer’s death as I do all victims of male pattern violence.

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In a bigger picture sense, here are three of many realities that converged in Charlottesville:

1. “Activists” are displaying their usual delusions of grandeur. 
The clever signs, archaic chants, and IG-ready face-covering bandannas -- none of it challenges anyone. On some level, we all know it but “activists” keep play-acting at “defending the streets from fascism.” Being attacked -- either by cops or any random enraged man -- comes courtesy of the “big illusion.” 

What’s the big illusion, you ask? Surely you know. We all know and we’re all complicit: It’s when the Blue Bloc of law enforcement is told to viciously crack down on the hapless protestors. The disproportionate brutality of their response will appear to send a tacit message to the ineffectual activists: “You’re scaring us so we’re shutting you down.” Of course, this isn’t even close to true -- but tell a group of social media-pumped virtue signalers that they’re dangerous, and you can be damn sure they won’t ever try tactics that might actually work. Why risk everything by escalating to actually “fighting Nazis” when our puppets and V for Vendetta masks have the State (and random enraged men) in a panic, right?

Reminder: If we continue to delude ourselves about “activism,” we’ll continue to stand no chance against the long term, systemic problems touched upon in #2 and 3 below.

2. White supremacists are behaving predictably -- if you’ve studied their methods.
It’s no accident that the “left” is a farce while white supremacists grow more powerful by the day. I’ve written about this more than a few times, but here’s a quick summary: 

Some time back in the late 20th century, a group of powerful white men conjured up a plan. It may take quite some time, they surely realized, but they decided to begin methodically infiltrating law enforcement departments from sea to overfished sea. Start with lowly recruits now and within a decade or two, they’d rise to decision-making positions. 

As their power grew, they could lure in returning soldiers and influence lawmakers to allocate funds for increasingly militarized equipment and weapons. By the time something really bad happened (read: a black president), they’d have enough influence to do things like control what information gets leaked and when. Who knows? It might even contribute to getting a powerful kindred spirit into the White House. And if the rabble ever actually tried real dissent, well… they’d be faced with a heavily armed, heavily conditioned force of sociopathic racist males. 

3. Yet another man expressed his rage through violence and by killing yet another woman.
“Activists” hold meetings and conferences and think (sic) tanks. They go on for days on social media. But millions of hours and billions of words are wasted because they’ll never name the problem. “Radical” movements are founded on patriarchy under a patriarchal umbrella. That partially explains how anyone can ever be even remotely surprised whenever a male attacks a female. Male pattern violence rules all interactions but almost all of us avert our gaze.

“Charlottesville” was inevitable and “normal”
While we danced in turtle costumes in 1999 Seattle, the enemy patiently took over another police force and standardized authoritarian tactics like “designated free speech zones.” 

While we gathered under the “Anybody-but-Bush” banner in 2004, more KKK types became sergeants, lieutenants, captains, inspectors, commissioners, and beyond. 

While we argued with cops over arcane laws that may or may not “allow” us to sleep in tents in a downtown Manhattan park, they trained with law enforcement agencies in others countries --including Israel -- while normalizing military-style weapons right here on our city streets.

While we proved our hardcore purity by refusing to take five minutes to vote against a fascist, they ramped up surveillance and infiltrated “activist movements”… just in case.

And especially while we blocked traffic with our Black Lives Matter signs, they rose to positions like prosecutors, judges, and district attorneys to make sure justice would never be served.

Do you really wanna know what works when it comes to creating sustainable change? Hint: It ain’t social media flame wars and clever hashtags and “Love Trumps Hate” fantasies. Can you handle what it looks like have a vision, an agenda, and the patience to implement it? The template exists, if we only had the courage and patience to embrace it.

By Lorie Shaull from Washington, United States (Love Trumps Hate) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

“Her death will not be in vain”
Go back up to the second image above and you’ll see these words: “Her death will not be in vain.” I fully expect to be told that this article dishonors Heather Heyer’s death. Let me be crystal clear in my preemptive retort:

I don’t know what Heather Heyer thought about the big picture concept of “activism.” But I ask all those who organized more marches and protests, all those who pontificated on social media, all those who spoke about how “love wins,” all those who proceeded with activist-business-as-usual after Heather Heyer’s murder -- what “honor” are you showing her with your counterproductive and ego-driven loyalty to ossified beliefs and tactics? 

“Her death will not be in vain.” This can turn out to be true but only if we stop kidding ourselves that what passes for activism is the same as “defending the streets from fascism.” 

It’s long overdue for us to reject all existing “groups” and “movements” and find new role models for victory. Success leaves clues. Find them and learn from them. Evolve. Name the problem -- over and over. Perhaps best of all: Eschew “activism” and get busy with local, direct action work. 

We need to do all this and much more to honor the memory of Heather Heyer and all victims of male pattern violence. History tells me not to hold my breath… 

Mickey Z. is the founder of Helping Homeless Women - NYC, offering direct relief to women on the streets of New York City. To help him grow this project, CLICK HERE and make a donation right now. And please spread the word!

What if I told you 'Antifa' virtue signaling is NOT the same as 'fighting nazis?' by Mickey Z. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://worldnewstrust.com/what-if-i-told-you-antifa-virtue-signaling-is-not-the-same-as-fighting-nazis-mickey-z.