Comment by rationalist

Funnily enough, the currently airing Starz program, Spartacus: House of Ashur does this, has Caesar as a character and all political sides use “pirates” as a bogeyman to justify all sorts of things and stage false flag attacks while pretending to be pirates. It’s meant for entertainment not historicity but it’s kind of reminding me of Battlestar Galactica reboot touching political themes in this one aspect except with swords and prosethetics flying everywhere.

I saw an exhibition on cannibalism that mentioned a similar thing such that being called a "cannibal" was used in a similar fashion.

The difference is that North Korea is a place, with an organization that claims to be its government. You can point to it on a map.

Antifa is an adjective that people with no connection to one another self-apply. I'm antifa, and I imagine you are too, but it doesn't mean that we've ever met or coordinated with one another in any meaningful way.

The word "antifa" is basically meaningless altogether, since virtually every person since the end of WW2 claims to oppose fascism.

Well, it makes you antiDPRK. Being anti-antifascist just make you a fascist, or a fascist-adjacent supporter.

That’s not their view, it’s their propaganda. No one has ever made any actual, credible argument that anything about “antifa” is actually “fascist”.

But that's really the height of silliness. I can say that all people who describe themselves as 'anticapitalist' are actually capitalists, but that doesn't change anything about those people, the ideology in question, or the world.

Are some people who call themselves antifa secretly fascists? I'm sure they are. So?

wow.. "who would you hide" - christ. thanks for posting that - it's powerful.

Well you see the difference is that antifa means anti fascist but the PATRIOT act isn't patriotic, it's just called that. Hope this helps.

Ah yes, I too conflate bills written by organized lobbyists with a loosely affiliated group that says American shouldn't be ran by Nazi's. The Nazi's running America get very mad about that and ensure to flood the airwaves with how cities in the US are mile wide smoking craters due to people who don't like authoritarians.

Oh so Antifa is a single formal political party with card carrying members, a clear leadership structure and participation in mainstream public political life? I had no idea. Your analogy makes perfect sense. Where is the Antifa national headquarters?

>NSDAP or the Bolsheviks

You don't even need to use examples that westerners find polarizing because they want to minimize or maximize their badness for political reasons.

Africa is full of factions with grand names doing less than grand things that nobody here has any attachmennt to and do not cause complexities when comparing to.

"Despite the name, The Party of Peace and Love is actually authoritarian and horribly repressive, as you can see from the millions of people they've killed."

"Despite the name, Antifa is not just 'anti-fascist' but is actually _________"

What goes in the blank?

Only to those of a particular political persuasion. Every group has their own shorthand.

That's the intent but most people know it's not true. It's right up there with "woke" and "progressive" as generic, shapeless, boogeyman words. No real meaning besides "something bad".

They're not understood, but propagandized that way.

Pretty sure most who claim the mantle of “Antifa” would welcome that Communist label, and plenty would endorse violence if it’s against the “right” people, so if the shoe fits…

Presumably you mean that it is commonly presented that way by authoritarians who have no idea what they are talking about.

> ironically fascist organization

There is no antifa "organization". It is not centralized, there is no "leadership" or anyone in charge. It's more of a philosophy.

> Antifa is commonly known as an ironically fascist organization that uses violence and intimidation to silence speakers — it's like how the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" is not really democratic.

That's not "commonly known", that's the spin you'll get from the right-wing in the US who just happen to have heavy fascist tendencies.

Ahh yes let's list out the people who have been silenced by antifa....oh yeah that didn't happen

> if you think that contemporary applications of the term "fascist" are inaccurate in describing what's happening right now in the US

Didn't say that. I'm saying I've seen the term thrown around wildly to apply to all manner of things. Like the other terms.

The term is probably fundamentally fucked. If you asked Hitler if he's a Nazi, he'd say yes. If you asked Mussolini if he's a Fascist, he'd say yes. These were the words they used to describe themselves. The reason I'm describing the phenomenon versus blaming the folks using the terms broadly is because I don't think this is a personal failing by anyone as much as something that's linguistically happening.