Antifa Supersoldiers Have You Surrounded
During the 2016 presidential campaign season, chaos agents and political partisans used memes to drive particular disinformation narratives across social media. The Trumpian right led by Steve Bannon, propelled by the reactionary energy of 2014’s Gamergate, far outpaced the Democratic coalition in producing slogans and images that jumped from murky online forums to official campaign materials. “The left can’t meme”, itself, became a consistent refrain as liberals failed to counter in the Great Meme War. Memes that are scandalous, offensive, and outrageous spread further, where animating audiences through these powerful emotions plays better among right wing populists than it does among any other crowd. Political correctness, social justice, and earnest outrage are often just not that funny or memorable.
But, there are exceptions. And despite the right’s claim to memetic victory, sometimes leftists find a meme that works to their advantage. This week, we’re looking at the ways the left have been able to take the memes related to the antifa super soldier, and its comrades, antifa Navy, and antifa Soup to counter disinformation about “antifa.” While debate about the degree to which “antifa” can be considered an organization has peppered social media discussions, as a memetic theme, “antifa” is all salt: course, gritty, and an acquired taste.
Over the summer of 2020, as the media attention on protests against police brutality switched to focus on the relatively small instances of violence at the protests, the “antifa supersoldier” was drafted into the meme wars. Across social media, claims that “antifa” were moving from city to city carrying out tactical operations proliferated. The narrative was so entrenched, one company made a poster for target practice featuring an “antifa supersoldier.”
“Antifa” parody memes proliferate in direct response to misinformation from the right wing pundits, who claim “antifa” is a powerful and well-funded organization. In fact, anti-facisist protests are usually called in reaction to planned far-right events, where the “antifa” group that shows up is composed of a small, loosely affiliated coalition of people who believe in fighting against facism.
In cities, like Portland or Oakland, with larger anarchist contingents, these “antifa” protests can draw high numbers. As the rhetoric against “antifa” has ramped up on the right in response to national Black Lives Matter protests and, specifically, protests in Portland, memes about “antifa supersoldiers” have become common on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and subreddits r/selfawarewolves and r/therightcantmeme. This meme is routinely posted as an ironic bant against overblown claims, like President Trump wanting to label antifa a terrorist organization.
On Thursday, September 17, FBI director Christopher Wray made an important point to congress, saying “It’s [antifa] not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology.” Similar to feminism, a movement or worldview will manifest in groups taking action, but no one asks “who is the president of feminism?” or “where is the headquarters of feminism?” Questions like that are laughable.
Nevertheless, how do you convey all that complexity in a meme? Enter the antifa supersoldier.
The antifa supersoldier was born in the fall of 2017 in response to the erroneous rumor that antifa was planning an armed uprising on November 4. (ReplyAll did a great segment o their podcast about it back then.) The rumor of the antifa uprising had been simmering throughout that summer, but it gained steam when a YouTube video from “Jordan Peltz” went viral in late August, 2017. In the video, Peltz was dressed to look like a law enforcement official, and he appeared to be sitting in a police car (Peltz was not, in fact, law enforcement). He told the camera that on November 4 antifa would “start off by attacking police officers, first responders, anybody that’s in uniform.” He said antifa was fundraising and planning a coordinated attack on white Trump supporters; in reality, a group named Refuse Facism had planned demonstrations against the sitting administration, which they do nearly every month in different cities. The video was a hit, and it inspired more. A few weeks later, InfoWars reported that antifa was planning an armed civil war, to kick off on November 4. Some on the right began preparing for attack.
In response to these rumors, on October 27 @Krangtnelson made a joke on Twitter. “Can’t wait for November 4th when millions of antifa supersoldiers will behead all white parents and small business owners in the town square,” Nelson wrote in a now deleted tweet. The antifa supersoldier had entered the chat. But right-wing media did not find it funny. They reported on it as if it were true.
“ANTIFA Leader: “November 4th […] millions of antifa supersoldiers will behead all white parents,” blared an October 30 headline from the Gateway pundit. The supersoldier joke was treated as proof of the original rumors. Nelson was briefly suspended from Twitter. “Anyone with a single crease in their brain could see that my post was satire, but alas, the internet has no shortage of morons, and the tweet was apparently reported into oblivion,” he wrote October 31, 2017 in Vice.
While antifa supersoldiers didn’t show up to the armed rebellion on November 4, they had become a meme, a convenient short-hand for the gullibility of those who share misinformation, and the misconception that “antifa” is a highly disciplined tactical unit. Nelson wrote in Vice, in response to the Gateway Pundit referring to him as the leader of antifa, “I should qualify here that while I have no love whatsoever for fascists, I am neither the president, the chairman, nor the CEO of antifa.” (People claiming to be the leader of antifa has become its own version of the joke — a joke that in one case reportedly led the FBI to interview the self-proclaimed leader.)
As art, the supersoldier is often depicted as an idealized “future liberals want”-style superhero, clad in Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ and other symbols. The phrase is often added to pictures of decidedly un-macho images, like cuddly puppies, cartoon animals, women in bikinis, or Hollywood actresses.
When the Wall of Moms showed up in Portland, they were depicted as the antifa supersoldier in hashtags and political cartoons.
Gritty, the strange orange NHL mascot, is an antifa supersoldier, too.
The supersoldier meme doesn’t always go by that name. Recently, the meme has been riffed on to encompass any notion of antifa as an army — or, as it were, a navy. When a bunch of Trump supporters’ boats sank during a “Trump boat parade” on September 5, 2020, right-wing influencers and media suggested they could have been attacked by “antifa.” The internet could not help but respond with memes about the antifa navy.
When Trump claimed that antifa was throwing soup at police, supersoldier memes acquired a new weapon.
In some ways, antifa memes are an expression of deep exhaustion with persistent disinformation campaigns. Just this week, the Justice Department declared Portland, Seattle, and New York City to be “anarchist jurisdictions.” The cheeky website Digg promoted the news with the tagline “ANTIFA CEO IN BUSHWICK CONFIRMED.”
As disinformation about “antifa” proliferates, memes can serve as an ironic fact-check or a funny rebuttal. As gallows humor, memes are a way to counter-disinformation by using a communication strategy of humor over rumor. While memes might not be an effective way to combat right-wing media portrayals of protesters that often reach millions, memes can be an expression of solidarity in an exceedingly chaotic media ecosystem.
