Anti-Antifa
Antifa may not be “terrorists,” but they’re not the good guys, either
Last Saturday’s street theater in Portland, Oregon, where left-wing protesters faced off against far-right groups holding a rally to “End Domestic Terrorism,” has once again brought the spotlight on Antifa, the loosely knit “anti-fascist” movement seen as heroic resisters by some and extremist thugs by others.
The “extremist thugs” version was offered by conservative journalists Andy Ngo, who tweeted a thread with videos and photos documenting actual or alleged Antifa misdeeds, and Elijah Schaffer, who reported from the ground. Their portrayal of lawless chaos in which the police hung back while violent Antifa mauled innocent conservatives was vehemently and often convincingly challenged by their critics. In particular, Ngo was excoriated for claiming (on the basis of Schaffer’s video) that Antifa mobbed a bus carrying right-wing demonstrators and attacked them with a metal hammer; more complete footage of the episode showed that one of the men on the bus swung the hammer at the protesters, who grabbed it and then threw it back.
