Note: The views and opinions expressed in blog/editorial posts are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of Misbar.
In a March episode of “The View,” Joy Behar and Meghan McCain argued over whether Antifa was an actual group, or merely an ideology. Behar argued that it was an idea, while McCain claimed that Antifa is a real, tangible movement.
As a matter of logical coherence, an ideology does not exist independent of individuals who hold that ideology. Consider Catholicism and Catholics, for example. Catholicism is an ideology. Catholics are people who hold that ideology and practice it. It would make little sense to talk about Catholicism as an ideology if no one held the ideology or practiced it.
There is no sense in saying that any ideology is nothing more than a thought. Ideologies do not exist in and of themselves. They are part and counterpart of the people who espouse those ideologies, and wherever people hold ideologies, they act according to them. When a person really believes in something, it is manifested in their lives through their actions.
Americans in nearly all big cities have seen the ideology of Antifa manifested in protests throughout the country over the summer of 2020.
Antifa exists as not just an ideology, but a movement – a group of people who hold that ideology and act by it. The people who hold this ideology are clearly organized enough to start protests, which the media has consistently referred to as “mostly peaceful” because of the incidents in which peaceful protests erupted into violence.
Whether or not a protest erupted into violence, the mere fact that people who hold to Antifa ideology were organized enough to come together in such large groups is proof enough that Antifa exists as an organized group of people who hold to an ideology – not as an abstract idea that is just floating around out there with no one espousing it, and no one acting by it.
Few people understand this better than Andy Ngo. Ngo was an aspiring young journalist fresh out of college. He believed that the job of a journalist was to uncover the truth and report events to the American people as they were unfolding. In his home city of Portland, he started to experience months-long protests which grew violent almost every night. He noticed that the media was reporting on these protests and calling them “mostly peaceful” and revealing only footage that was shot during the day when things were peaceful. Ngo noticed, however, that when the sun went down, the violence unfolded. He began to go out as a journalist and caught footage of the violence that was happening in his city on a nightly basis.
He quickly became a target for Antifa. After shooting and sharing footage of what he saw happening right in front of his eyes, he was labeled a right-wing extremist, accused of spreading misinformation, and targeted and attacked.
When Dave Rubin invited Ngo to speak on the Rubin Report, he asked the question: What is Antifa? Ngo responded: “It is a movement, an ideology, and a shadowy network of people who call themselves anti-fascists but actually espouse an extremist ideology.”
This network of people is organized, they have planned events, and those events have had consequences. This is proof that Antifa exists as more than an idea. It is a concrete organization. An ideology does not target a journalist and threaten his life. People do those things – particularly people who have banded together under an ideology who perceived someone as a threat to their goals and decided to do something about it.
Ngo acknowledges that out of the thousands of protestors, there are only a handful of people who donned black clothing associated with Antifa and committed acts of violence. However, he claims that the media’s failure to acknowledge Antifa violence is causing even more violence to erupt across the nation. When Ngo interviewed right-wing extremists who stormed the Capitol, he asked them why they did it; almost all of them responded that if Antifa can protest and burn cities and private property for their cause, then they believed they should have the same rights. This is an extremely dangerous mindset, of course. Violence should always be condemned, no matter what side of the political aisle the perpetrators are on. When the media ignores the violence of the radical left or, worse, sets up funds to bail them out of jail, it sets the precedent that violence is the way to attain one’s political goals.
The rioters who stormed Capitol Hill on Jan 6, 2021 are being systematically hunted down, charged, and jailed. And rightly so. But this should be happening to Antifa members who committed acts of violence as well. If criminals from both right-wing and left-wing activists were being arrested and charged, it would send a message to the American people that violence is not the way to get your way politically. When the media condemns the Capitol Hill rioters but denies that Antifa even exists, it not only fuels the flames of division but undermines Americans' faith in media. When the mainstream media tells them that Antifa exists only as an ideology, but they knew someone who died in the protests or their friend’s business was burned to the ground, they completely lose trust in their sources of information. When this happens, they turn to alternative news sources, further polarizing the country.
Antifa exists as more than just an ideology. It is not logical to claim that an ideology can even exist apart from the people who partake in it. Aside from that, it is dangerous to claim that it does not exist because the violence they are committing will continue to happen if they are not faced with consequences for their actions. Ignoring the existence of Antifa and the violence they have perpetrated also sends a message to far-right extremists that violence is an acceptable way to promote their political agenda. Furthermore, denying the existence of Antifa as an organization undermines American’s faith in their media because their news sources are telling them something that is in opposition to what they have seen with their own eyes. Therefore, it is not only incoherent to claim that Antifa is only an ideology, but it is also a false and dangerous claim that will have dire consequences for the American people.
