On Monday, just one day after the Republican Party staged a Horst Wessel-style memorial for Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Arizona, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating “antifa” a “domestic terrorist organization.”

The order claims that antifa is a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that uses “illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide.”

Antifa, as even FBI Director Christopher Wray was forced to admit in a September 2020 congressional hearing, is not an organization but a broad current of opposition to fascism. “Antifa is an ideology, not an organization,” said Wray, who also testified that the bureau had no data showing any lethal violence committed by the organization.

Since antifa as a formal organization does not exist, Trump’s executive order amounts to a blanket authorization to brand political dissent and opposition to his fascist regime as “terrorism.”

  • tidderuuf@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    One can be anti fascist whilst not being a member of Antifa. Don’t forget people, these are the dumbest people in the world running this show.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      No, “antifa” is, itself, the term for the position of being against fascism. There is no organization.

      They also will not care as they’re just going to accuse their enemies of it regardless of how left they are. They know exactly what they are doing, and they’ve been doing it way faster than I expected.

    • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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      I would argue there is no organization known as “antifa”. Certainly nothing with structure or presence like tpusa or the proud boys, ya know the organization that terrorized the seat of our nation 5 years ago…

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        Attend the planning meetings of any anti-fascist group that uses ‘antifa’ in their name, of which there are many; in my experience the ‘membership’ is almost identical to the ‘membership’ of the local Anarchist Book Fair planning committee.

        Or show up to an anti-fascist rally, even as a bystander, get arrested for nothing, and now your name is on a ‘known members’ list in some pig’s office :P

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yeah but the more you read up on the Nazis the more you find out they were pretty dumb too. Still killed millions of people.

    • Luouth@lemmy.world
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      So, so dumb that I can fully imagine a scenario like this playing out amongst the orange knobhead and his staff on the daily

    • flandish@lemmy.world
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      explain how so? consider that there is no way to “be” a member of a group that does not exist in that manner. being of the cohort of people who are antifascist is not the same as being a “member.” I suppose we are saying the same thing. :)

  • betanumerus@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    He signed an executive order making the entire US army oppose him.

    Ima stay outa this now.

  • SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    The far right which has taken over ICE and the Federal government under Trump is terrorizing many, many people in this country. JD Vance, Noem, and Trump know it (the cruelty is the point) and yet all cast any criticism of this fact as “terrorist rhetoric.” That kind of table-turning projection is foundational in the authoritarian playbook.
    But what I don’t understand is - why does the American public discourse seem to tolerate all these tactics?

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      why does the American public discourse seem to tolerate all these tactics?

      Because most people aren’t very smart and will only care about something once it directly affects them, which is too late.

      Which is why this is probably going to get a whole lot worse and everyone that is smart should be preparing themselves for that.

    • Jessvj93@lemmy.world
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      Because allowing these tactics let’s them “hurt the people he needs to be hurting.” They’re authoritarian themselves.

  • chillpanzee@lemmy.ml
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    5 days ago

    Since that name is now burned, maybe we could start a new organization to fight fascism. And to let the world know that we’ve reached a point of fascism we can’t turn back from, we can call it Turning Point.

    It’d be fun to let them wrestle with calling brand Turning Point a terrorist group.

  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I think I’ve figured out Trump’s Reichstag moment.

    It’ll be the White House burning down, because of something going wrong with the ballroom construction. Then he’ll get to move the presidential residence to Mar-A-Lardo like he’s always wanted, and charge the American taxpayers for renovations and rent forever.

  • evenglow@lemmy.world
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    In the last 30 years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has documented only one killing committed by an alleged antifa supporter. On August 29, 2020, Michael Reinoehl shot and killed fascist Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a member of Patriot Prayer, during a protest in Portland, Oregon. On social media following the killing, Trump encouraged police forces to kill Reinoehl. “Do your job, and do it fast. Everybody knows who this thug is,” Trump said. Reinoehl was murdered by police and federal agents on September 3, 2020.

    While there have been virtually no documented killings committed by alleged antifa members, there have been hundreds of murders and tens of thousands of assaults committed by self-declared fascists, antisemites, far-right militia elements and white supremacists over the last 30 years.

  • NoWay@lemmy.world
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    Historically the War Dept was anti fascist… Which means Trump just declared the U.S. military a crimanl terrorist organization… Time to go arrested those serving in the military. Let’s start at the top: The good old commander in chief.

    • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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      I had a horrible stepgrandfather. He’s done two good things: first, die, second, instill in us the value of fighting fascism. He fought nazis in europe. He went off about Constant Vigilance or something. Fighting fascists is a traditional united states value.

      • NoWay@lemmy.world
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        Don’t suppose he had signs of PTSD? Not defending him for any horrible actions but WWII messed with a lot of men’s heads and gave lasting repercussions generations down the line. Helps to identify toxic traits that flow from it to stop it in your family and community.

        Men of america were known to weep in the streets prior to WWI. Being open to showing emotion was robbed from men due to war.

        • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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          oh definitely had that. he got ptsd after the war. it’s a very long story that would probably identify me. short version, he served in a different theater than just about everyone from where he lived and thus felt ostracized by the veterans groups. because of that he never got the support he needed, which was partly a self-inflicted wound. as one of his favorite targets, i find i’m more able to empathize/sympathize with other folk who’ve been in his position than him.

    • TheThrillOfTime@lemmy.ml
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      Idk historically the war department was used to push fascism on people outside the country. Go ahead and ask the Vietnamese or the Iraqis how they feel about the US military.

      • NoWay@lemmy.world
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        After WWII the war department became the department of defense (and still is,just this year it has a nickname of war depart.) So Vietnam and both the gulf war and war on terror was a different department. However the war on terror and this year for Venezuela the DoD actions are very much like terrorism. The nickname executive order and the antifa executive order lays out the return of the historical war dept which the last war was WWII against Nazis (and against racism) as such the 2nd executive order rightly names the DoD as a terroristic organization

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      You think making opposition to fascism a criminal offense is a distraction from releasing the files that we already know the man is in?

      This is why we are fucking doomed. Get a grip.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        The birthday book is the List. People have the thing they demanded and they’re still just repeating the line and nauseum to themselves.

        It’s terminal brainrot. Nobody knows how to resist a fascist government. All they know how to do is shitpost

    • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Epstein files or no, this motherfucker is making it very easy to jail his critics so maybe consider giving this threat a little more weight.

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    I’m still going to protest, because I’m not the coward that these fascists are hoping for.

    Getting arrested for holding a sign on public property will be a slam dunk lawsuit.

    Executive Orders cover the federal executive branch. They aren’t federal law, they aren’t state law & the certainly don’t override the Constitution.

    Grow a fucking spine.

      • ski11erboi@lemmy.world
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        I get what you guys are saying but this idealogy is what makes this a reality. People must continue to protest in large numbers. Only once the numbers dwindle will they sweep in and start charging people with terrorism. There is safety in numbers.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        We need to protest even if we’re not protected. We need to protest even if we wind up hanging for it, like Sofie Scholl.

        In a sane world, yeah, it would be a slam-dunk lawsuit, but we’re in uncharted territory now, so who knows if that will remain true. The direction we’re moving in will be so much worse. If we don’t protest now, when we might possibly have some protection, we’ll wind up in a world where our protest will absolutely cost us our life.