The Antifa Wars Are All About Machismo
TWO groups of imbeciles — the so-called Proud Boys and antifa — jousted over the weekend in Portland, Ore., mostly quite feebly and indecisively, while partisans on traditional and social media tried to make maximum political hay. While the media framed the battle in stark ideological terms, it was mostly about young men, and not a few older ones, doing what they like to do: engage in street combat and boast of their exploits, in this case by posting them online.
It all started when the Proud Boys — who combine small-government libertarianism, men’s rights and what they call the “Spirit of Western Chauvinism” — announced that they would rally in Portland on Saturday to “end domestic terrorism,” the “terrorists” being the so-called anti-fascists of antifa. Antifa views anyone who isn’t on the hard left as a “fascist,” and once the movement affixes that label on you, you are fair game for the brutality of its black-masked minions.
Portland was ready. One lawyer in the liberal enclave took to Facebook to urge “people taking direct action to write” his phone number “on their bodies with marker. . . .I will be available all day. Stay safe out there.”
Flyers everywhere announced that “armed white nationalists have come to our city to . . . terrorize and assault our community,” especially racial and sexual minorities. “Organize community self-defense groups,” blared the flyer. “Travel with a buddy.”
When they arrived, in what looked like painted-over school buses, the Proud Boys were a motley army indeed. The many video clips from Saturday posted to social media show a small gather
ing of paunchy men, on average at least 15 years older than the average wiry, kale-fed antifa supporter.
The first thing the Proud Boys did was hold a prayer circle led by a bearded black man, not exactly a white-nationalist image. Video clips show sparsely populated parks with Proud Boys milling around desultorily, mostly filming each other, with more media and police than actual participants. One man brought along his 12year-old daughter.
True, a lot of this posturing seems to have been strategic on the Proud Boys’ part — a pivot to the always-effective martyr strategy.
They stood manfully holding their ground while masked antifa thugs circled, until the antifa A Team took turns darting in and whacking the Proud Boys, while everybody filmed and posted.
Antifa, for its part, is all about provocation — from blocking city streets when tired workers are just trying to get home to shutting down invited college lecturers whom they deem “fascists.”
Sometimes they are about worse stuff than provocation — as when they targeted the journalist Andy Ngo, a contributor to these pages, and sent him to the hospital with a brain hemorrhage.
Yes, the Proud Boys have some truly toxic folks in their ranks, but antifa is marginally scarier, because its violent methods enjoy barely disguised backing of the city’s liberal elites — so long as the violence is directed at the right villains.
Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, for example, sounded like she was encouraging a “byany-means-necessary” response to the Proud Boys, telling Portlanders on Wednesday that “the threat is real,” that “there are no two sides” and that “hate and inaction against hate are unwelcome.”
Would everybody be more honest, please? Yes, it was provocative for the Proud Boys to pick a confrontation with antifa on its home turf, but it would be helpful if Portland’s progressive leaders would acknowledge that their “woke” boys want to bust heads, too.
Perhaps this whole drama is better understood as a tribal confrontation, a young man thing, as old as humankind — think Bloods and Crips, Jets and Sharks, Gangs of New York, Montagues and Capulets. Being a “Street Fightin’ Man” is glamorous. Just ask Mick Jagger.
The ideological component is real, and let’s hope law enforcers are keeping an eye on what these groups are up to, given the history of far-left and far-right militancy in this country. Still, the bulk of these groups are men (and some women) in search of a political rationale for what violent types have loved to do since time immemorial.
Just give these two groups of idiots a field where they can have at each other.
While the media framed the battle in ideological terms, it was mostly about young men ... doing what they like to do.