America has a long history of colorful crusades; we had the "Yellow Peril", several "Red Scares", the "Lavender Panic" and a potential new one in the "Black Menace".
This latest reactionary frenzy has little to do with skin color and a lot more to do with the black outfits worn by those who identify as Anti-Fascists, or #antifa.
There are efforts underway to have "Antifa" declared a terrorist group. That the United States Government has announced intentions to re-instate the federal Death Penalty, as well as an upcoming election, makes me wonder if this is all an attempt to scare critics of President Trump, especially those who directly confront the reactionary forces he empowered.
The main problem I see is #antifa isn't an organization, or it's no more an organization than the "Alt-Right". Antifa is more of a leaderless resistance, or a collection of ideas and tactics. The ideas are nothing new; the ideas of mutual aid, mutual defense, and an opposition to capitalism have ebbed and flowed for decades both in the United States and around the world. The tactics were developed mainly in Europe and have been present in America for decades as well; it just took events like Charlottesville, Portland and even DC, to bring the American flavor of #antifa into the spotlight.
I think the folks proposing these bills know the chance of them passing is nil. The idea, if not to silence some of Trump's most vocal critics may also be to provide a convenient "dog whistle" for the voters Trump and the GOP rely on for so much support.
With all of this, some of you may wonder what's holding up the latest chapter in my look at the book What You Don't Know Can Kill You. There are two main reasons. The first is that I'm working my way through the second piece of plunder from Red Emma's, Che Guevara's Guerrilla Warfare. Second is that the next relevant chapter from "What You Know. . . " is going to be a bit dense as it concentrates on the letter of the law as it pertains to self, and community, defense.
