To The Atlantic, Media and Others Who Get Antifa Twisted

[ancianita]

57. Right. Anyone avoids groups that try to defend against toxic racist fascism. The scene is scary, but

the Germans learned, and keep trying to tell us, that the more they postponed confrontation, the stronger, faster, bigger the numbers grew in white supremacist groups who really are driven by fear, as well. Pelosi's stance is understandable, and perhaps comes from taking the stance that her job is to remain level headed in these times of high tension and conflict.

Fear is contagious. NeoNazis have been organized in the US since 1933. The anger we feel toward those who would hurt any people of color -- or us, our children and grandchildren -- is capable of being channeled away from doubting or hating defenders against fascism, and more toward support of anti-fascists. Which is what we see church antifa people do. We don't all have to stand on the front lines, but I'd rather err on the side of supporting defenders who do than take cynical and defeatist attitudes because they're imperfect or infiltrated.

I recommend Rebecca Solnit's Hope In The Dark -- all of Solnit's books, actually -- which makes a radical case for commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknknowable. History supports her claim that "radicals have a long, frequently overlooked record of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our acts are not always immediately measurable, that the embrace of ucertainty is both more useful and accurate an assessment than either passive optimism or pessimism and despair."

John Berger states that Solnit reminds us that "hope is not a guarantee for tomorrow but a detonator of energy for action today."

Rev. William Barber's Moral Mondays of North Carolina are a good example of antifa activity.