I have been told that the letter I wrote to my Republican senators and shared online last night was "tepid fear-mongering", "asinine, moronic drivel", and the reason that 'both the right and the left hate' 'dumbass liberals'. The reader in question seems primarily to have been offended by the phrase "Antifa extremists", I assume because the person is an Antifa supporter and does not like to think of himself in those terms.
I think most people would understand that I wrote that letter from the perspective of a jaded voter dressiing-down a conservative reader. Part of doing that was speaking in terms the person I was insulting could understand, couching my talking points within concepts they ordinarily embrace.
To clarify, however, if I believed the Antifa movement was an extremist group, I wouldn't have said "Antifa extremists", I would simply have said "Antifa". There's a reason we say "Islamic extremists" but we don't say "Nazi extremists"; the former requires the qualifier, the latter does not.
My intention in the letter was to convey the arc of escalation our country is on right now. As rule of law erodes, I see the rule of fear and violence inevitably overtaking it. As a left-leaning/liberal American (and yes, I say both, because 99% of Americans use the words interchangeably; get over it), I'd like to think that the authoritarian nationalism that has become intimately tied to political conservativism in America makes disenchanted right-wing Americans the only threat to our future, but that's a biased opinion, and to be completely fair, disenchanted - and increasingly disenfranchised - left-wing Americans have more reason to resort to terroristic violence, even if they innately have less proclivity towards it.
It would be nice to think I'm "fear-mongering" for some sort of personal political gain, but the reality is that right-wing domestic terrorism is already a problem, and it's only natural that the left will eventually spawn individuals who attempt to retaliate. To me, the Antifa movement will be the most likely source of these individuals for multiple reasons.
First, an authoritarian power thrives on having a recognizable and frightening enemy to rail against. I would expect that whatever left-wing counter movement escalates to violence, it will probably be egged-on and quietly supported by right-wing interests. I can think of one conservative media darling, employed by Breitbart, who already has past experience acting as an agent provocateur (his name literally appears on the wiki page for that term), and he has been very (suspiciously) quick to report on Antifas' actions, presenting them in the worst possibly light. I think the seeds are already there.
Second, Antifa have the name-recognition to draw out and empower left-wing individuals with militant views and the online presence to connect them, while also being too decentralized to rein in or take responsibility for their members in any meaningful way. While the Antifa movement may not transform into an organization of violent extremists, it's the most likely body on the left to spawn one.
Third, and finally, while I regret having caused emotional distress to any Antifa members out there who were offended by my use of the phrase "Antifa extremists"... Actually, no, I don't regret offending you. You're pricks, and more than anyone on our end of the political spectrum, you're the ones who make us 'dumbass liberals' look bad.
Antifa aren't the Black Panthers. The Black Panthers showed their faces when they turned out to support their cause - despite being people of color extremely vulnerable to systemic and personal reprisals. They had the dignity, pride, and bravery, to put their lives on the line for their people. Anonymity empowers people by deindividuating them, freeing them from personal accountability or moral responsibility. It's a tool of cowardice, a bullying tactic, and it's toxic.
And does anyone really believe that the black bloc attire that Antifa protesters are notoriously associated with actually conceals a diverse and inclusive body that genuinely represents the underpriveleged Americans they're supposedly advocating for? No, I don't think many of us really believe that - cherry-picked interviewees aside - Antifa is anything more than another excuse for entitled middle-class, white boys to put on costumes, light fires, and frighten people they hate.
And America has had one too many of those for a very long time.
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