The Fascism of Antifa

Timothy Birdnow

The Fascist philosophy behind Antifa.

Their beliefs come from one Herbert Marcuse, a Marxist philosopher who cut his teeth with Nazi Martin Heidegger at the University of Freiburg and later The Institute of Social Research aka the Frankfurt School. He is the creator of Critical Theory which postulates:

Critical theoryis defined as "a philosophical approach to culture, and especially to literature, that seeks to confront the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures that produce and constrain it.”

This might sound benign, but in practice, critical theory is the shallow analysis of politics, history, art, and society through the lens of power dynamics. It places the world into a box of oppressor vs. oppressed and insists that those who are oppressed are "good” and those who are oppressors are "evil.”

In an article for Quillette, Uri Harris describes critical theory as follows:

By identifying the distorting effects power had on society’s beliefs and values, [the founders of critical theory] believed they could achieve a more accurate picture of the world. And when people saw things as they really were, they would liberate themselves. "Theory,” they suggested, always serves the interests of certain people; traditional theory, because it is uncritical towards power, automatically serves the powerful, while critical theory, because it unmasks these interests, serves the powerless.

This is achieved through "repressive tolerance" meaning the "powerless" or rather the revolutionaries have the right and duty to use violence and hatred to foment their revolution, and freedom of speech only serves the rulers.

If violence is justified to "restore the power balance" what is to prevent the other side from using it? And what happens when the balance of power tips? Anyone remember Robespierre?

Anyway, this is a terrific article.

One quibble; the author argues nobody really knows what Fascism is. I disagree; we have a very clear guide to what it is; Benito Mussolini wrote The Doctrine of Fascism which explains it quite clearly.

And if you want to understand it read Rousseau's The Social Contract. Rousseau invented both socialism and fascism there; he argued that all social structures are a mere compact, an expression of the  collective Will of the People. Socialism was thus born because the People could choose to share all wealth, as indeed Rousseau saw they had every right. And Fascism? In order to promote this sea change in economics Rousseau argued for the deification of the state as the ultimate expression of that collective Will, and he saw a kind of veneration of the State - of the Nation - as the key to breaking the old allegiances to Church and religion. Socialism and Fascism are two heads of the same monster. Mussolini (who had been the editor of Italy's socialist newspaper) saw Fascism as being the next step in socialism; having a spiritual dimension rather than just an economic one. (Mussolini repeatedly said he rejected Socialism, but not because it was wrong but just incomplete.)

But they are all cut from the same cloth and Mussolini would not have argued against that proposition.

Antifa is in fact Fascist and Socialist. It's quite clear. They seek the destruction of traditional Liberal Western beliefs, and the destruction of the influence of the Church (notice how Churches have been attacked by BLM, Antifa's kissing cousin) in the last year. They believe in imposing their will on the nation, to move it where they wish.

Mussolini says:

The main difference is that Antifa is a revolutionary movement intent on destroying the power structure. Of course, it would replace that structure with a worse one, just as Mussolini said he would do.

At any rate, everything old is new again. We are seeing the new Nazis fighting in the name of opposing Fascism. It's fascinating, but it's real.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:19 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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