from MicroWave@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 16:44
https://lemmy.world/post/39294083
Designation of groups from Italy, Germany and Greece labelled ‘ridiculous’ as experts say no active threat posed
Experts have told the Guardian the same anti-fascist groups the US state department recently named as foreign terrorist organizations and accused of “conspiring to undermine foundations of western civilization” barely qualify as groups, let alone terrorist organizations, and pose no active threat to Americans.
“The whole thing is a bit ridiculous,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which tracks extremist movements worldwide, “because the groups designated by the administration barely exist and certainly aren’t terrorists.”
In a release put out earlier this month, the Trump administration, which has made no secret of its hatred for leftists in the US and abroad, named Antifa Ost in Germany, the Italy-based International Revolutionary Front, and two organisations in Greece – Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense – to its long list of designated terrorist organizations.
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Aww man, I didn’t know there was an official soundtrack for Antifa! Germans get all the cool stuff.
They keep using the word “die”, see, they’re violent extremists!!!
It’s a big club, anyone that’s not fascist is in it by default…
They named specific groups under the umbrella, though.
oh hi
I know Lemmy is small, but barely exist? c’mon
Sort of like how “Al-Qaida in Iraq / Syria / etc” wasn’t a real organization, just a way of publicizing the War on Terror in a language Americans reflexively accepted.
We’re going to see random people persecuted as “Members of Antifa” in the same way we spied on and harassed anti-War Quackers and anti-Genocide college students by affiliating them with “terrorist groups”
Anti War Quackers (Bangkok protests)
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/43009476-8f0c-4258-8761-6479cff63fe2.webp">
Anti War Quakers
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ac9d130e-0d27-4373-99a3-98ebeb97b756.jpeg">
I can’t help but tease, I am from very prime Quaker territory, so I see the mix up constantly. 😜
Yeah that is why the fascists took over we need to bolster our numbers.
What, why specifically them? Are we not good enough? Time to burn some cars, comrades!
(dear friends in the US administration: this is a joke.)
Our electric cars burn themselves anyway. 🤷♂️
Watch this admin fuck things up even further and tomorrow label Aldi Süd as a terrorist org.
Foreign terrorist groups can be prosecuted, and the president has a much freer hand constitutionally going after foreign than domestic groups. There is no actual federal law to designate and go after domestic terrorist groups. But there is for foreign.
Here is the plan:
Designate a handful of foreign branches of antifa as terrorist groups.
If anyone in the US is a member of an antifa group, arrest them for being member of a foreign terrorist group, even if the group they are a part of is completely unconnected to the European groups.
Make the defendants spend thousands of dollars and years of their lives fighting anti-terrorism charges, and get “arrested for terrorism” as part of their criminal records.
I wasn’t seriously asking why, I was pretending to be offended that antifascists from eastern regions of Germany (“Ost”) are supposedly more important than those from western regions :) this whole affair is obviously ludicrous and nothing but an excuse to persecute and intimidate their opponents.
It is ridiculous. The countries these groups are in, which are advanced first-world democracies just like the US, say these groups are well under control and far less active than they were years ago. But even these “barely a group” European groups are far more formal and organized than any antifa-leaning organization in the US, the Trump admin just needed someone, anyone, to slap a terrorist label on.
You really don’t need to be an expert at all to know how stupid this is.
You do need to be a complete lunatic to believe Trump’s propaganda though.
Unfortunately, that’s a huge chunk of Americans, and lunatics don’t believe in facts, reason or common sense, so whatever experts say, won’t change a thing.
At this point, calling Trumpists “lunatics” is an insult to the moon. We need new superlatives to express the depths of how fucked up they are.
It’s just more pretense to manufacture whatever evidence against whoever they want.
The point isn’t to actually go after these specific tiny foreign groups. The goal is to brand any organization that’s labeled “Antifa” as a foreign terrorist group. There could be some non violent antifa group in Portland, with no ties to any foreign organization whatsoever. The DOJ can go in, arrest all members, and charge them with terrorism for being members of a foreign terrorist group. Would these charges actually stick in court? No. After years and tens of thousands in attorneys fees, the charges will be dropped. But the process is the punishment.
Are they going to invade Poland, their NATO ally, to arrest them? Because USA laws only apply in the USA.
It’s just a fucking farce, with no consequences other than Trump scoring some points for “fighting far-left radical terrorists”.
Unless he really lost his mind and plans to invade Europe to get rid of these “terrorists”.
Who said anything about foreign action? I just told you exactly what the purpose of this rule is. It’s to maliciously prosecute domestic peaceful protesters. This isn’t some farce or distraction. It’s the core purpose of the thing.
How can you prosecute domestic terrorists if they are actually foreign terrorists?
I think you’re mixing up the two.
FYI, the article is about foreign terrorist groups, not domestic .
No you are confused. You can prosecute born US citizens for being a member of a foreign terrorist group.
That makes much more sense
I think they just misread Portland for Poland. That’s where the misunderstanding lies.
Ah yes, I remember reading in history class about that time Stalin and Hitler signed a secret treaty to divide up the territory of the Portland metropolitan area. :D
It’s all right wing terrorism these days. FBI confirmed. Someone gave the keys to the terrorists and now they are calling the shots. Up is down, down is up.
Well we have always been at war with Eastasia you know.
There are three primary countries attempting to undermine western democracies. Vlad’s Russia, Xi’s China and Mango Mussolini’s USA. F-them all!
It’s because they want to label people as belonging to these groups to arrest them on terror charges.
Pffff surely there are no recent examples of anyone doing anything remotely like that.
They’re saying fascism is the foundation of western civilization. LMAO
Fascism is corporatism. Corporatism’s final evolution through corruption is a corportocracy.
Did you wonder why Antifa was so against the World Trade Organization’s negotiations, where a bunch of corporations were deciding the laws of all the nations.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but the whole world is pretty much fascist at this point.
In case anyone isn’t clear on that…:
— Benito fucking Mussolini. You know, the fascist who arguably invented fascism, or at least popularised its name.
It’s a shame the name based on a bundle of sticks became the popular one instead of the one that tells it like it is, but I suppose not even fascists would support fascism if it was named appropriately.
No one who understands it goes with it. It requires pure, violently maintained misunderstanding to even exist. Some try to label that a “worldview”, although it isn’t.
Remember when the Trump administration designated a random gang named MS13 a major terror organization? What did that event lead to? What parallels can be drawn between that event and this event? Hmmmm
So you’re a terrorist if you’re not a facist because you hurt the facists feelings by peacefully protesting while they’re engaging in illegal state sanctioned terrorism
Sounds like Israel stuff
If the shoe fits
Netanyahu, anyway.
Nailing jelly to a wall.
This is a huge win for the regime.
Bist du Anti-Antifa, bist du FA!
If you’re anti Antifa, you are FA!
Fascism – by design – is all or nothing. There is no “just a little bit”. Either you are part oft the regime or against it.
I’m proud not be able to visit the US, because I’m pro democratic and therefor Antifa!
I’m able to visit, but I am absolutely unwilling to do so.
For the reasons you already mentioned.
There are many millenials here right? Do you remember the time when it was a standard being against fascism? It was a synonym for pure evil. Saying fascism was similar to saying concentration camps and genocide.
Now it’s considered ‘domestic terrorism’ in the US being against fascism while they fund an active genocide in Gaza.
The boomers running the show were raised by the people who actually fought against fascism during the Second World War. I guess they all have Alzheimer disease.
Alzheimer’s doesn’t make you a genocidal fascist, don’t let them off the hook that easy. Also turning Alzheimer’s into an insult is kinda hurtful for people who actually have it and their loved ones.
What I meant was, that they already forgot the history their parents were a part of. You know, since they are boomers and of the age of getting memory loss diseases, while still upholding their position of power.
I’m not claiming people with Alzheimer disease are fascists or anything like that. I don’t understand how that is what you extracted from my comment.
I though it would be clear, but apparently even something as simple as this needs an explanation.
It’s not considered that.
By anybody.
Even the idiots shouting it know it’s wrong.
So it is being considered that, maybe not seriously from those pulling the strings, but there are more than enough rubes who will unironically think it.
Opposition to Antifa is basically this:
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/5c1c3801-0fdb-4a15-8960-7a8beb300724.png">