The narrative must be reinforced.
Antifa and BLM have never killed anyone. Antifa and BLM have not had violence at the VAST majority of their events.
But right-wing terrorism has killed 329 Americans since 1994.
So if the right was exactly "as violent as Antifa and BLM", America would be a much safer place.
— Steve Hofstetter (@SteveHofstetter) January 2, 2021
Elsewhere he links to this Business Insider article which links to this Guardian article that claims to reference the study that has the numbers.
Replies so this tweet included these memes:
as conservatives and liberals whine about antifa's supposed violence yet again, it's important to remember: pic.twitter.com/8ZCr9WE5rR
— ☀️? (@zei_squirrel) January 2, 2021
Yes, yes, yes, Antifa are the good guys. They are “mostly peaceful” and it’s white supremacists who are the problem. Centrists and others who can’t tell the difference are just stupid.
I am not going to defend white supremacists for an instant.
Let me just say that white supremacists do not represent Conservatives or are not the extreme wing of the Right, the way Antifa represents Progressives or are the extreme wing of the Left.
I want to focus on the part “So if the right was exactly “as violent as Antifa and BLM”, America would be a much safer place.”
I wonder about this:
Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese spoke about the new year’s eve riot in downtown Portland where antifa ransacked and looted businesses, started fires, assaulted responding law enforcement, and tried to break into the Justice Center. pic.twitter.com/1iutoyagup
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) January 2, 2021
That’s the Multnomah County Sheriff, not exactly a Right-winger himself.
If Portland is Antifa’s Capital, Seattle is their second city. What do the people there think?
PUSHING BACK: Black bloc marchers terrorized parts of Seattle last night, wielding weapons, trashing some businesses and continuing their streak of violence and destruction. Capitol Hill is done with this behavior and is taking a stand. Reinforcements coming in the New Year. pic.twitter.com/bDnZ7pDSEl
— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) January 2, 2021
NEW YEAR’S EVE DESTRUCTION: Capitol Hill biz owners and neighbors are fed up with black bloc marchers wrecking the city. The owner of Cafe Argento says they’re being targeted for just trying to improve the neighborhood.
Story 6pm @komonews #seattle #CalAndersonPark pic.twitter.com/WF7pDQL68b
— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) January 2, 2021
According to the aforementioned meme, only Nazis want to kill people for their political views and Antifa is trying to stop them. A business owner signed a letter to the mayor about the problems in the city and Antifa delivers him his own personal Kristallnacht.
As of July, in Portland alone, riots cost the city $23 million. I can only imagine how much more it’s been since then. I just can’t find more recent numbers. It’s gotten so bad Portland businesses can’t get insurance anymore.
As of September, the total nationwide for riot damage was $2 billion.
It’s continued. Antifa has done this to Portland, Seattle, and city after city where they’ve been allowed to riot with minimal pushback week after week for months.
Antifa destroyed another Starbucks & other downtown businesses in their Portland riot. pic.twitter.com/w1aAvOVZ4Z
— Andy Ngô ?️? (@MrAndyNgo) January 1, 2021
Conservatives, the Right, Trump supporters, have not wrecked the economies of the downtown business centers of major US cities.
We have not cost the nation billions in lost revenue and damages.
We have not destroyed the livelihoods of small business owners.
The Left has done that.
But you are to ignore all of that because some study can put 329 bodies on the right but none on the Left.
So when Antifa comes marching through your town, burning and looting, destroying business, and turning your popular business and restaurant district into an economically unviable area of broken glass and graffiti, you should it was Leftists and the Right-wingers who came through.
Who are you going to believe is worse for your city, a study or your lying eyes?
Their entire argument is “no true scotsman”. Some antifa thug steps out of hiding and shoots a Trump supporter dead and that shooter wasn’t a member of antifa.
It’s not real violence when they destroy property. It isn’t real violence when they blind a cop. It’s not real violence when mortars, IED s and incendiary devices go off on a group of Trump supporters or cops.
And look his far back they had to go to get a scary number.
The question I ask is: which would you prefer, a group of black Bloc marching through your neighborhood or a group of the proud boys, patriot prayer or MAGA people?
I’m pretty sure that the only violence in the later case would be when they “counter protesters” showed up and attacked. Even then I wouldn’t be worried about Innocents being attacked.
Another part of the issue is that according to them, defending yourself is violence, so the Kenosha Kid is a violent right winger that liked two and tried to kill a third.
I’m getting such of this crap.
I agree with the above. Most of it is the “no true Scotsman” fallacy. For example, here is a killing from Central Florida where a man angry over police allegedly killing blacks decided to murder two police officers, one of them a black man.
The black police officer was a friend of mine. So the left can just fuck right off with that shit. Sam Howard was a good man and didn’t deserve what happened to him.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-marine-veteran-killed-2-police-officers-death-penalty-jury-decides
>>>But right-wing terrorism has killed 329 Americans since 1994.
At least he puts Antifa BLM in the terrorist category by comparison.
Presume they go back to 1994 because the Oklahoma City Bombing was done by verified Aryan Nation / Nazi Party members (sarc) and accounts for half of the total with 168 killed. If BLM he could have compared to Chicago with only about 800 in 2020.
It’s a systematic lie. Repeat it often enough and it becomes the truth, or so another leftist said.
Been hearing the same bullshit in Germany for years.
So RWTs killed less people in 26 years than were murdered last year in Portland .. less by around a factor of 2 1/2. Further, at that rate, it would take them more than a century to catch up to what Islamic terrorists did in one day.
Yeah … I’m not a white supremacists, and have zero sympathy for their ideology, but they seem to me to be in a whole other league. Just not a threat on the scale of, oh, walking through the wrong part of town.
No true scotsman – good analysis.
As for the rest, well, if you repeat a lie often enough people start to believe it … especially if it’s a big lie. (And if you eat a pie often enough … you get fat. My first Ottocorrect of the day, but cute enough to share.)
“Antifa and BLM have never killed anyone.”
First of all, I am not entirely sure that is correct. However… semantics.
Secondly, if the bar for “violence” is a dead body, nothing less can be considered violent, then maybe they are correct. But, only an idiot thinks like that.
So, in their world, if a dozen of my friends peel one of their minions off, and only beat said minion half to death, it’s nonviolent?
Because, that seems wrong, somehow, to me…….
What white supremacists? Both of them?