Antifa and the Rednecks.

Yaaaaaaaaaa

It seems that Antifa has become a big deal. These protestors that have closed down and partially destroyed several American cities in the name of being anti-fascist, Even Trump has mentioned them, but who were the actual fascists and how does wearing black and being violent help anyone?

As for the Rednecks, well, I don’t really agree with them either, I’m not a racist and I’m not all that caught up in ‘Western chauvinist History’ and I don’t have a pickup truck, but I do quite like the show about the Oil country rednecks who all fight each other in between finding millions of dollars of oil… and The Alligator Show is good too… Where they catch the Alligators by hand in small boats and kill them just off camera, to turn them into handbags! I feel a bit sorry for the Alligators of course. But Hey. I’m not perfect! I eat meat.

I’m also Australian, so before you get angry, we don’t have to take sides in the southern hemisphere, after all we are on fire most of the time and drunk the rest of the time according to legend, so forgive my sins in advance and treat me like the ignoramus I am.

Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa; my Aniticula. (latin)

I see them on the news. The Redneck-Antifa. Breaking things and yelling a lot. It’s not that I don’t sympathise, I do. I understand that when there is so much bad in the world, that yelling about it and marching might be cathartic but, I think that the days when a herd of people walking around and burning things was shocking are over now. We have all seen that zombie show that has five thousand episodes, it’s getting a bit old. Another deadly herd. yawn.

The protesters and the rednecks only get about three minutes on the news that night if they are lucky, and half of that time will be pictures of burning buildings and unclear shouting noise and not even peoples faces … so why go on the news? Most people are watching ‘You-Tube’ these days anyway and it doesn’t really prioritise news broadcasts anyway.

Ahem. ‘You-Tube.’ cough, cough. wink.

anyway… seems a little old fashioned. Protesting is a bit like breaking your favourite thing, in a dark room on your own, in a disused mine, at night.

Honey! Daaarling! Ahh, my little Aniticula. The news is on! Come and sit on the couch..it’s 5pm. You’ll miss it.

‘Oh dear, Honey! Look! Everything is on fire and it’s night time in Portland…pass my glasses…is that Kevin? From next door? It cannot be. Such a nice boy. Why is he wearing so much black?

Oh thank you, yes, I’d love an Asparagus roll. Hmmm. Delicious. (see fig.3)

Fig. 3 I’m pretty sure this photo is not under copyright. If so, I have some tinned asparagus and bread in the kitchen anyway.

So, I guess that the the Redneck-Antifa are all hoping that a whole heap of people will watch the news tonight and notice them marching, just after they beat some Antifa/Red necks up on camera. Yessss. That is the plan. That everyone will notice them on the news in a very anomalous and sudden reversion to 1950’s news watching family values… and day time tv watching schedules.

Or perhaps, the Antifa-necks are thinking that maybe some people will see the Redneck-Antifa looking ‘so cool’ as they march conveniently past the houses in the street with their cool Rebel yell/ Anarchy flags and all the people might peek through a gap out of their bed room window at just the right moment and see them looking cool in their protest/protest stopping, clothing gear that they just bought from Walmart..

and then... umm…or maybe… just maybe…that boy/girl/other that they kinda have a crush on; who lives in the apartment/farm just down the road, might ask them what they were doing that weekend with a coquettish flick of they’s bangs and Redneck-Antifa could flex quietly and say mysteriously with a piercing and steely glare. ‘I was taking action’ before leaning back on their cowhide/Anarchy rug and taking a hit off a spliff/marlboro and looking mysterious.

Fig.7 Marching down the road in Portland. Hoping someone notices. looking mysterious. Not entirely convinced that they will be impressed by the look of the facial expression. Photo of protestors in Portland by Google search.

So other than not really understanding the whole protest thing. I also wrote this because I really don’t like it when people break things and I really don’t like racism or abuse of power, or violence..and (shhh) I don’t really like guns.

Nooo! I’m not an Antifa, Bubba. Don’t hit me! Put me down Bubba! I am Australian. Bubba!! Not Austrian, Australian, you know, iced Vo Vo’s and handle of Black and Tan (fig.8) , AUSTRALIAN, Bubba.

Fig.8 A ‘handle’ see above, of Black (stout) and Tan (lager) mixed together. Is only drunk by old, old men in Australia. An iced Vo Vo is a biscuit and is an old Aussie Biscuit. The joke is that Bubba would not know what either of these are because he is an Antifa redneck guy and this is very local antipodean knowledge.

Put down the cowhorn!

Bubba, We are not allowed to have guns anyway, it does not matter if I don’t like them or like them. It’s illegal to even own one. They took them all when we had a mass shooting.

What was that Bubba?

Oh, Just one mass shooting in Australia Bubba and the Government took all the guns.

Yes, all of them.

No, we don’t mind. They did pay us for the guns and now no one shoots anyone except for the bikies and they just shoot each other and get arrested a lot.

What about the 2nd Amendment Bubba?

Well, we don’t have ‘rights’ or ‘amendments’ Bubba. Look at our six month covid lockdown in Victoria. Our Premier (Think, State Governor when reading ‘Premier’, but mix in dictator/accountant) is going to cancel Christmas if we aren’t good boys and girls.

but we do have …drumroll…Section 119 chapter 5 of our very own Austrian constitution.

119. Protection of States from invasion and violence

The Commonwealth (errm..commonwealth kind of means government ) shall protect every State against invasion and, on the application of the Executive Government of the State, against domestic violence.

See Bubba, it makes perfect sense why the Government took the guns. they want to protect us. (see fig. 9)

Fig.9 Eighties businessman cleaning out the back of his ute.

Anyway, before I get distracted and go off on a tangent, It struck me about mid last week that my own knowledge of Fascism is pretty dodgy. I read about Franco at University but can’t remember much, and these protesters in Portland seem to dressed as fascists but claim to be ‘anti-fascists’ and protesting about..errm…everything. So I thought I’d get a little more educated.

What is Fascism

Fascism is a movement. A group of people who believe in a forcibly (read violently) monolithic and regimented nation under the control of an autocratic ruler.

Well, thanks ‘Time.com’. (I always thought ‘you’ (Time) were a magazine, but I guess I need to get with …the times. (groan))

It seems that the key ideas in the definition here are ‘Monolithic’ as in a single giant feature. So Fascism is not just the individual, it is a giant single movement of people. (see picture fig 1.)

fig.1 This is a monolith. It is also Uluru. No one wants you to walk on it. It is sacred. Really. No joke. It is our Heartland.

and forcible: as in; to do something by force. (see pic. fig.2)

fig.2 Doing something by Force: Surely no one will sue me for copyright over a jar of pickles photo. I have one of these jars also, but I opened it and it grew something on top and now I don’t want to eat the remaining Pickles. Just in case.

and autocratic. Which has a more serious meaning. An autocrat wields absolute power and will put up with no disobedience at all.

Franco (a ruler of Spain) was an autocrat as an example and he was not a nice person.

Let’s move down the page a little so my ‘serious’ paragraph isn’t next to a jar of Pickles.

(I don’t know either)

Franco the Dictator

Francisco Franco Bahomonde was a General in Spain.He became a dictator and gave himself the title of Caudillo. Chieftain. He took over the whole country to wield absolute power from 1939 to 1975.

From 1939 to 1975.That is 36 years. How old are you? That is a long time.

His dictatorship was characterised by forced labor, concentration camps, and executions with between 30,000 to 50,000 deaths. Franco ruled with more power than any Spanish leader before or since, and developed a cult of personality around his rule by founding the Movimiento Nacional. Which was basically a movement of fan boys who worshipped the ground he walked on.

Franco you stud.

So what has this got to do with Antifa? Well, Antifa seems to believe that increased police power, weakened checks and balances on the Trump administrations rule, and an increasing divide between Rich and Poor across America are all hallmarks of a system that is moving towards Fascist rule.

Some very well publicised incidents between police and citizens of various cities fan the flames. They are worried about a monolithic government that violently suppresses all that disagree with it just like Franco’s and which talks over moderators in debates.

There is also the niggling worry that Trump won’t stand down if he is not re-elected and that his political party has a lot of guns. This seems to be caused by the fact that the President of the United States has actually said that this is his plan and the fact that his Political party (unlike Australia) has a lot of guns.

There won’t be a transfer, frankly , There’ll be a continuation.”

Trump

Considering that Franco, our Spanish Generalissimo, took over Spain for 37 years and executed people who disagreed with him, the suggestion that Trump will not commit to a peaceful transfer of power sounds a whole lot like Fascism to the long haired hippy Antifa. So they watch old sixties movies about the protests and then go and burn some libraries while wearing black to make their point about their wish to live in a better world.

Now Bubba. Look away. You’ll get your turn soon but I have to show them a nasty picture. This is an image by the artist Fernando Reza and you can see the propaganda inspired style and the clear critique implicit in his formulation of Trump as the centre piece for a Franco style, cult of personality poster. Trump is being depicted in the style of the worlds dictators and most would agree there is some issues with the idea that he does not want to concede that an election could result in him ending his rule.

Cult of personality — Franco

On the other hand Bubba. The hardworking Republican people of America, conservative, god fearing and loyal to their flag, are legitimately concerned that a group of kids are flouting the rules and burning down Portland. As Trump said in his debate.

They did not win the election and

‘Elections have consequences’.

Trump

What a brilliantly quotable one liner! It has an implicit reference to Law and order in the idea of ‘consequences’ and simultaneously turns the Democrats quibbling over the peaceful transition of power on its head. He is saying; I am the consequence of your Democracy. I have legitimacy which you do not. Very hard to refute and very painful for an opposition that is arguing that Trump is threatening democracy. He is Democracy in action.

So surely Antifa should just recognise that they are not in power and take the consequences of losing the election. It is very much against the rules to burn things and break things and is really anti-social. They need to be taught a lesson.

Antifa debating whether they should burn down the library. Resisting consequences. Photo still .The Breakfast club.

Well we know that they have at least some legitimate concerns. Police brutality, unequal access to power and medicine and infrastructure, entrenched racism.These things are all forms of injustice and some border on institutionalised repression. But surely this is not a free licence to burn things and wear black clothing from Walmart.

And why does Antifa wear black? It is most probably a form of cultural re-appropriation which is sourced from a different facist organisation in Italy called The Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale. Otherwise known as…’the black shirts’. A paramilitary group that existed under Mussolini.

Cultural re-appropriation is when an organisation uses a term, such as the ’N’ word, or Homosexual slurs, in order to weaken the power of those terms in society. The most well known example of this can be seen in 90’s Hip Hop where African-Americans take the ’N’ word and repeat it five million times at high volume. If it is used by the victim then its power over that group is lessened. Its shock value reduced. Its effectiveness is blunted.

That is my word. you cannot use it against me, Bubba!

Oops. Sorry. Bubba. Put me down. I was being metaphorical. I was just saying Bubba, so that you would understand in personal terms the way that an individual might re-appropriate a word from the aggressor.

What Bubba? No I don’t see you as the aggressor, I am Australian. I am neutral. You are not my enemy. I’m like Switzerland in World War 2.

No, Not chocolate Bubba. Neutral. Switzerland was neutral. Australians are neutral.

Anyway Antifa seem to be doing this. They are taking the tools and clothes and methods of Fascism. Scary black uniforms, a paramilitary attitude and general destruction and violence and repurposing it to protest against the fascist tendencies of modern America.

Antifa?

So, I’m hardly going to get through this without annoying somebody, but I do want to do just one more article after this with one more example of Fascism, the one in Italy, I mentioned earlier on Mussolini and the Blackshirts. I would like to see the forces that Antifa are attempting to resist a little more clearly, and perhaps look at the way that Antifa are doing things and wonder whether the cultural re-appropriation of fascist tendencies is the right strategy.

SO stay tuned for another article, but one last thing as I finish.

I can tell you from my perspective. Fighting fire with fire is all very well Mr Redneck-Antifa, but in my experience as an Australian this tends to lead to…errmm.

Lots of fire. and fire burns everyone.

the view from my bedroom window (not really)

I hope you enjoyed this article. Please clap and follow if you did. It lets me know I should keep writing and is much appreciated.

Drop me a note and say hi if you’d like.