Antifa apologists are using the very arguments they’ve long warned would be used on behalf of a fascist agenda.
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Once upon a time, a saying commonly passed around left-wing circles was the following:
“When fascism comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag and will claim the name of 100% Americanism.”
While this saying is commonly said to be a quote from It Can’t Happen Here author Sinclair Lewis, that’s actually not the case. It’s actually a combination of what Harrison Evans Salisbury said to summarize Lewis’s believes (“If fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.'”) and a common saying passed around left-wing circles of the time (Halford Luccock said, “when and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.'”).
I mention this because, despite its questionable origins, the quote does make a good point. With how fascism has been discredited and attacked the world over, to the point where it is easily the most hated ideology on the planet, the next wave of fascists will try to associate more with Washington than with Hitler. (As fascists, as well as communists, in the United States did do whenever they tried to get political power.)
Ever since the post-World War Two era, the left has accused every Republican President of wrapping themselves in the American flag to help bring fascism to the United States. Whether it be with Donald Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again,” George W. Bush’s choice to name his most controversial piece of legislation the PATRIOT Act, or Ronald Reagan promising to “Make America Great Again.” Wow, Donald Trump really isn’t the most creative mind now, is he?
Of course, being worried, even paranoid, about an idea such as fascism isn’t what I would call a bad thing. However, this leads to the main point of this column; apologetics for Antifa are almost the exact same line of reasoning left-wing anti-fascists warned us about.
And mind you, this isn’t me picking some nobody out of a hat. Lewis is arguably the most famous American left-wing anti-fascist, as well as one of the most famous in general (only eclipsed by George Orwell). This idea that American fascism would be using the ideology of patriotism was also a common warning from left-wing anti-fascists at the time. Hell, nationalism providing a base reason for authoritarianism was basically the warning of George Orwell’s 1984.
Read this tweet by left-wing writer and essayist Ben Schwartz in response to President Trump calling Antifa a terrorist organization:
Wanted: Antifa leader Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, for destruction of fascist property, capturing fascists, and killing fascists. Ike is considered armed and dangerous and is linked to anti-fascists in England, France, and Russia. Do not try to apprehend alone, call the FBI. pic.twitter.com/1gs66Q9vbT
— ben schwartz (@benschwartz_) June 1, 2020
(Side note: If Eisenhower was the original Antifa, does that mean Antifa is currently trying to get Richard Spencer to lead their space program?)
How about this Tweet from left-wing comedian (and worst pony) Patton Oswalt:
Why would a white supremacist hiding in a bunker be so against anti-fascists? https://t.co/rWg1UV3dgC
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) June 1, 2020
There you go Mr. Lewis, fascism wrapping itself up in the American flag.
I should also note that the comparison between Antifa and the Allied Forces is nonsense. The Allied Forces only attacked people directly, going after them as they were fighting a war they only joined due to the largest attack on American soil for almost sixty years.
Wait, hasn’t the left spent decades telling us that when the Allies did go after a large group of people more generally, they were committing a crime of war? I recall Barack Obama even apologizing to the nation “the Antifa of their day” did the most damage to.
Yeah, the thing that bothers me the most about the Antifa apologetics the left engages in is just how hypocritical they are. For example, since Antifa is short for anti-fascist, they are “everyone who is against fascism.” However, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria does not represent all Muslims. Nor does the Union of Soviet Socialist Republicans represent all forms of Socialism.
Also, if Antifa wants to weasel its way into American history, I should point out that Antifa has declared its end goal to be anarchist-communism, while Eisenhower was one of the strictest enforcers of the Truman Doctrine (as Iran learned). While many on the left are correct when they say Eisenhower more than likely wouldn’t be a Republican today, it’s also much more likely he’d be a Blue Dog Democrat in the mold of Robert Byrd and not Elizabeth Warren.
But again, the whole reason Antifa is doing this is so they can do what the actual anti-fascists said fascists would do, wrap themselves in the American flag.
Look, I’ll be blunt and say one of the reasons this bothers me so much is because I do have a lot of respect for the left-wing anti-fascists of the Nazi era. Seriously, people like George Orwell, Sinclair Lewis, and Theodore Geisel took a big risk coming out against the Third Reich when even many of their fellow comrades got taken in. (Before anyone points out Henry Wallace wasn’t on that list, I’m aware. That was on purpose.)
While I may disagree with their vision for the United States, the fact that they were the first to ring the alarm about global authoritarianism is something I do admire. Seeing the left fall victim to what they once warned about is very disheartening, and it worries me about the future of the country.
To put it bluntly; if a large amount of the country is engaging in the tools of fascism, while another large amount of the country is doing the same, this is not a healthy society.
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