Trump's Orders Targeting Antifascism Aim to Criminalize Opposition

[Celerity]

Purporting to go after “domestic terrorism,” the president presents an imagined left-wing conspiracy and authorizes punishments for even tenuous connections to speech the administration doesn’t like.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/trumps-orders-targeting-antifascism-aim-criminalize-opposition

In late September, President Trump signed an executive order purporting to designate “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization.” A few days later, he issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) on Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence. This analysis evaluates the claims made in these documents and their potential damaging effects, drawing on the Brennan Center’s decade of work on the government’s framework for responding to terrorism, both foreign and domestic. Both the order and the memo are ungrounded in fact and law. Acting on them would violate free speech rights, potentially threatening any person or group holding any one of a broad array of disfavored views with investigation and prosecution.

No Evidence of a Widespread Left-Wing Conspiracy to Carry Out Acts of Political Violence

NSPM-7 starts by listing a mishmash of incidents, some of which are criminal and some of which constitute activity protected by the First Amendment. These include violence directed at public figures such as conservative activist Charlie Kirk, President Trump, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh; the killing of United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson; a purported 1,000 percent increase in attacks on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers; a shooting at an ICE facility; and anti-police and criminal justice protests. The events listed, according to NSPM-7, are “not a series of isolated incidents” and have not “emerged organically.” Rather they are the culmination of “organized campaigns” of intimidation and violence designed to “silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.”

As a basic factual matter, this claim is not credible. For one thing, the list is obviously cherry-picked to highlight what the administration believes to be “left-wing” violence and excludes other high-profile examples of political violence that do not comport with its storyline. These include the January 6, 2020, attack on the Capitol, a 2022 mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store motivated by white supremacist beliefs and the deadly 2025 shootings of two Democratic Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses. Painting this fuller picture, however, would puncture the narrative that political violence is the result of a left-wing conspiracy.

Nor is there any support for the claim that those involved in the incidents listed were acting in concert. The connection between the range of actors involved in the acts identified as political violence in NSPM-7 is simply that they are all seen as opposing the administration’s policies in one way or another (the killing of the United Healthcare CEO seems to be an outlier since no motive has yet been established). And there is no evidence to suggest that the broad universe of activism and criminal acts the memo cites is either organized or funded top-down. A loose ideological affinity does not add up to a concerted scheme to carry out violent acts to meet political ends.

No Authority to Designate Either “Antifa” or Any Domestic Group as a Terrorist Organization....................

snip

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. The facts will outweigh and outflank the lies

Trump is not omnipotent, and the states and the people are not powerless.

[Moostache]

2. Come and get me.

I AM Antifa.
I oppose fascism.
I do this in the tradition of my grandfathers who fought fascism in the 1940's.
I do this in the tradition of my father who served in the Vietnam era.
I do this despite NOT serving in the Gulf Wars.

Fascism lost in the 1860s.
Fascism lost in the 1940's.
Fascism WILL LOSE again in the 2020's.

Saying protest is illegal is a losing move. Demanding loyalty is the sure fire best way to get stabbed in the back.

Here's some speech that the administration won't like:

1) Trump is a fat, imbecilic piece of shit will a small, mushroom cap shaped dick and no balls.
2) Noem is a filler injected, BOTOX addled whore who kills puppies and brags about it.
3) Miller is a living embodiment of a cariacture of a "goon". His picture is the mental image of "evil twat".
4) Johnson is a hypocritical closeted gay man that likes to be dominated and loves gay sex more than Jesus stories.
5) Pambi is the single dumbest cunt to ever hold ANY federal judicial office or position, and she's lapping the field.

There was once a time when Rubio, Cruz and others would have been top line examples of GOP overreach and malfeascence - in today's world they are pathetic pikers and back benchers.

[vapor2]

3. Do we seriously need to worry about the goon coming after us on social media?

[Celerity]

4. yes, I think it gets to that level eventually

[gulliver]

5. Dems need to strongly condemn "Antifa"

I'm not a big fan of the cosplayers who show up wherever there are cameras in ninja outfits. You can't seriously oppose fascism with people who've been watching too many cartoons. And, contrary to popular belief, indulging people in their fantasy life at young ages is not good for them, and it doesn't qualify as empathy or respect.

I think we do a little political judo. We offer to help the Republicans find all the antifa boogey men they've been detecting under their beds. Be against the under-the-bed monsters! Offer the Republicans a blankie and to leave the light on for an extra half hour.

But seriously, it will help us reclaim a lot of the Obama voters we lost last election if they see that we are "policing" lost radicals who claim to be on the left. There aren't even very many people who would self-describe as antifa, I would argue. For every one of their votes we lose (to the extent they vote all), we gain fifty based person votes. Hopefully, we also discourage the antifa-portraying people themselves enough that they re-moor to planet grown-up.

[Mister Ed]

6. Strongly condemn a non-existent organization? And just endorse the GOP's framing as if it were real?

Those militant, black-clad far-left radicals you describe are extremely few, and extremely rare. I don't think it would do any good to exaggerate their minuscule numbers and their virtually non-existent impact.

[leftstreet]

7. There is no "Antifa" n/t