I’ll say it again: THE ONLY REASON TRUMP SUPPORTERS ARE BLAMING ANTIFA FOR THE CAPITOL RIOT IS BECAUSE WHITE PEOPLE ARE RACIST AGAINST THEMSELVES!
Mostly, I’m joking.
What I mean to say is that conservative America has spent years—and especially the last several months—condemning the violence, destruction of property and general lawlessness that sometimes (but not relatively often) takes place during Black Lives Matter protests. Now, they’ve seen all of that same shit happen during the montage of South Park outtakes that was the riot at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday evening, so now they need an outside group to blame for the chaos—and that’s where antifa comes in.
You see, years ago, when a strong majority of Black Lives Matter protests consisted almost exclusively of Black participants, it was easy for white people to point to a screen and say: “That’s it; that’s what Black Lives Matter is.” But since the death of George Floyd, BLM protests have been racially diverse, and that diversity has included a shitload of white people. When protests descend into violence, some of those white people are just as violent and destructive as anyone else, so they must be something different. They must be antifa. Antifa is the “niggers” of white people.
Mostly, I’m joking.
It really is a joke because here’s the thing: Much like the widespread voter fraud that started this whole fiasco in the first place, antifa isn’t real.
The FBI has said it; the Department of Justice has all but said it—pretty much every authority looking into right-wingers’ new favorite boogeyman group has said the same thing: Antifa isn’t an organization; at most, it’s an ideology with loose affiliations among some who take it seriously. The way conservatives use it, antifa is just basically an umbrella term for leftist white people who do destructive things.
So if antifa isn’t even a tangible organization, how the fuck would all of these GOP officials, pundits and conspiracy theorists even know that antifa members infiltrated and caused all the destruction during the O.K. Corral trailer park reenactment that was the riot at the Capitol? How does one identify an official antifa member? Is there a uniform? A gang tat? A decoder ring?
Certainly, they’re not relying on the facial recognition software that the Washington Times claimed identified antifa members among the rioters. (At least that’s what was reported before that four-course meal of white nonsense with extra caucasity on the side got debunked and the Times had to update the story with a retraction.)
Is West Virginia Republican Delegate Derrick Evans antifa?
How about North Texas attorney Paul Davis?
Ashli Babbitt died trying to defy law enforcement and storm a government building. Antifa, or nah?
Listen: Right now there is a well-known QAnon promoter who went through all the trouble to dress up like Great Value Braveheart and join his people in the redneck Game of Thrones battle scene that was the Capitol non-siege. Now, that man is big mad at his own people for calling him antifa on social media.
Jake Angeli—the guy you’ve all seen pictured among the mob looking like Conan the Probably-Arian—had to set straight Lin Wood, a lawyer behind several failed lawsuits to overturn the presidential election, for falsely calling him antifa in a now-deleted Twitter post.
“Mr. Wood. I am not antifa or blm,” Angeli wrote, SFGate reports. “I’m a Qanon & digital soldier. My name is Jake & I marched with the police & fought against BLM & ANTIFA in PHX. Look up OAN’s coverage of July 4ths rally in PHX capital. I was standing against the BLM mob out numbered but unphased. Look it up.”
Y’ALL ARE MAKING YOUR OWN PEOPLE FLEX CREDENTIALS TO PROVE THEY’RE NOT ANTIFA!
Here’s why all of this shit gets on my nerves: In the last four years, Donald Trump has managed to hustle his way into bringing propaganda to the mainstream.
The riot in D.C. only happened because Trump and his cult have normalized ignoring reality. Trump has elected officials debating whether or not voter fraud happened in this election like this is a real conversation. It’s not. It’s easy to blindly dismiss the vast majority of media outlets as “fake news,” but it isn’t just the media saying the voter fraud thing is a whole-ass lie. Dozens of judges across lower courts, appellate courts and supreme courts have joined the former head of election cybersecurity, the former attorney general, the DOJ and more in shouting from every mountain top in America: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD VOTER FRAUD, YOU’RE JUST A WIDESPREAD DUMB SHIT!
But just like with antifa and with conservative’s idea of Black Lives Matter—because BLM is an actual organization, but it’s also become a right-wing umbrella term for any negro they see on TV throwing a rock at a cop car—Trump, his supporters and QMorons (or whatever you call them) live by a single creed: Repeat the lie enough times and it becomes the truth...to idiots.