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Trump doesn't reign, he barely has control of the executive branch of government over which he has direct authority. He is opposed by his own party, congress, a

by rpiguy 9y ago

Trump doesn't reign, he barely has control of the executive branch of government over which he has direct authority. He is opposed by his own party, congress, and big business. There is no collusion of power behind Trump like there is behind Putin. They are both seen as strong men but only one is really a strong man. Second, classifying ANTIFA as a terrorist organization is nothing like Russia cracking down on Nazis. In the US you have free speech even if the government believes you are a terrorist organization. Now if the left wing get's their way and starts imposing hate speech laws, then ANTIFA needs to watch out because then they will be silenced by the government. Finally, there is a deep respect for protesting in the US but not for people who do it hiding behind masks. Ghandi didn't wear a mask, Malcom X didn't wear a mask, the kids at Kent State that were shot by the police didn't wear masks. A mask indicates you are there to do harm. Sometimes harm is warranted, but we respect protesters who actually practice Civil Disobedience, part of which is owning up to what you did. My only point here is that I believe Antifa would get more support from the American people if they could convince the 10-20% of members that show up dressed in black and wearing masks to just dress down and lose the goon squad apparel.

dragonwriter 9y ago
> He is opposed by his own party, He is opposed by a significant fraction of the other elected officials in his party in some issues, but he's also carrying out a campaign to bring he party to heel (and has not been especially constrained in taking extraordinary executive actions by the intraparty opposition, though that has limited his legislative success.) While his public support is weak overall, it's mostly concentrated in the committed electoral base of the party. So he's actually positioned better than one might expect for the intraparty struggle. If he remains in office through the midterms, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in relatively undisputed control of the party after them. > Ghandi didn't wear a mask, Malcom X didn't wear a mask, the kids at Kent State that were shot by the police didn't wear masks Another thing that all those people have in common is being shot for their activism.
- rpiguy 9y ago
  And they are deeply respected... Just saying Antifa would get a lot more support if they changed their look. People in black masks busting up Starbucks are not who anyone wants in charge. They just do Trump a favor.
  - ycmbntrthrwaway 9y ago
    > People in black masks busting up Starbucks are not who anyone wants in charge. They don't want to be in charge, most of them are anarchists (but only a minority of anarchists are antifa and not all antifa are anarchists).
    - Yetanfou 9y ago
      The majority in the rioting mobs don't have a clue what they really stand for. They might be able to articulate, haltingly, what they are against - which is whatever the loudest mouth in the mob has told them they're fighting - but if you ask them what they really stand for the answer is generally some incoherent rabble of buzzwords. They are like Lenin's 'useful idiots' [1], although the question is what use they serve to whom. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot
ycmbntrthrwaway 9y ago
> Trump doesn't reign, he barely has control of the executive branch of government over which he has direct authority. He is opposed by his own party, congress, and big business. There is no collusion of power behind Trump like there is behind Putin. They are both seen as strong men but only one is really a strong man. Yes, because in Russia it is history, you can study it and learn how nazi and antifa theme was used to attack free speech. That is what Trump is doing now by all means (fake news etc.). The result in Russia was anti-extremist law [1], see SOVA reports, they monitor it: http://www.sova-center.ru/en/misuse/ http://www.sova-center.ru/en/misuse/ This year it was even used to take to court a child [2] because someone (likely a policeman in fact, account was fake and action was taken this same day) posted emoticon with swastika on his page (the guy has a pro-libertarian YouTube blog). > A mask indicates you are there to do harm. It indicates they fear being identified by nazis and/or government. [1] https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/anti-extremism-policies-russia-and-how-they-work-practice https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/anti-extremism-poli... [2] https://tjournal.ru/57191-kurganskogo-shkolnika-obvinili-v-ekstremizme-za-to-chto-on-vovremya-ne-udalil-mem-so-svoey-stranicy https://tjournal.ru/57191-kurganskogo-shkolnika-obvinili-v-e...

by rpiguy 9y ago

dragonwriter 9y ago

> He is opposed by his own party, He is opposed by a significant fraction of the other elected officials in his party in some issues, but he's also carrying out a campaign to bring he party to heel (and has not been especially constrained in taking extraordinary executive actions by the intraparty opposition, though that has limited his legislative success.) While his public support is weak overall, it's mostly concentrated in the committed electoral base of the party. So he's actually positioned better than one might expect for the intraparty struggle. If he remains in office through the midterms, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in relatively undisputed control of the party after them. > Ghandi didn't wear a mask, Malcom X didn't wear a mask, the kids at Kent State that were shot by the police didn't wear masks Another thing that all those people have in common is being shot for their activism.

rpiguy 9y ago
And they are deeply respected... Just saying Antifa would get a lot more support if they changed their look. People in black masks busting up Starbucks are not who anyone wants in charge. They just do Trump a favor.
- ycmbntrthrwaway 9y ago
  > People in black masks busting up Starbucks are not who anyone wants in charge. They don't want to be in charge, most of them are anarchists (but only a minority of anarchists are antifa and not all antifa are anarchists).
  - Yetanfou 9y ago
    The majority in the rioting mobs don't have a clue what they really stand for. They might be able to articulate, haltingly, what they are against - which is whatever the loudest mouth in the mob has told them they're fighting - but if you ask them what they really stand for the answer is generally some incoherent rabble of buzzwords. They are like Lenin's 'useful idiots' [1], although the question is what use they serve to whom. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

ycmbntrthrwaway 9y ago

> Trump doesn't reign, he barely has control of the executive branch of government over which he has direct authority. He is opposed by his own party, congress, and big business. There is no collusion of power behind Trump like there is behind Putin. They are both seen as strong men but only one is really a strong man. Yes, because in Russia it is history, you can study it and learn how nazi and antifa theme was used to attack free speech. That is what Trump is doing now by all means (fake news etc.). The result in Russia was anti-extremist law [1], see SOVA reports, they monitor it: http://www.sova-center.ru/en/misuse/ http://www.sova-center.ru/en/misuse/ This year it was even used to take to court a child [2] because someone (likely a policeman in fact, account was fake and action was taken this same day) posted emoticon with swastika on his page (the guy has a pro-libertarian YouTube blog). > A mask indicates you are there to do harm. It indicates they fear being identified by nazis and/or government. [1] https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/anti-extremism-policies-russia-and-how-they-work-practice https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/anti-extremism-poli... [2] https://tjournal.ru/57191-kurganskogo-shkolnika-obvinili-v-ekstremizme-za-to-chto-on-vovremya-ne-udalil-mem-so-svoey-stranicy https://tjournal.ru/57191-kurganskogo-shkolnika-obvinili-v-e...