The peril of demonizing a non-existent organization... [View all]

Trump today decreed Antifa to be a domestic terror organization.

There’s just one problem, as anyone could have pointed out for several years: there is no “Antifa.” As an organization, or even a unified group, it simply doesn’t exist and never has. There are a number of groups that “support anti-fascist principles” – these range from the original Iron Front of pre-Nazi Germany to the Emerald City Supporters (the main fan group of the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer).

It might be amusing to think of Trump considering a completely non-existent group as terrorists, but I fear that, for the regime and its cult, “Antifa” will become like “porn” – in other words, “we can’t define it, but we know it when we see it.” Indeed, that sums up the response from MAGAts I’ve witnessed on Threads every time someone points out that Antifa doesn’t exist; they’re always quick to jump in with their own utterly-confident generalizations: “Antifa is those who wear masks and smash windows” or “Antifa are the extremists who indoctrinate gullible individuals into leftist violence, in the name of ’fighting fascism’.”

It doesn’t take too much to guess that it will come down to “Antifa is any group whose politics we don’t like.” I wouldn’t be surprised to see groups like Indivisible and 50501 being labeled as Antifa, and therefore “terrorist” and subject to criminal prosecution. We may see as soon as the next “No Kings” protest on October 18th.