Thorner/Ingold: Awakening to ‘ANTIFA’ – the Radical Left

By Nancy Thorner & Ed Ingold - 

Thesaurus.com defines "radical left" as a noun and the faction representing extreme left-wing political views, often Marxist or Maoist in ideology. Antifa “activists” fall under the definition of left-wing terrorists who don't shy away from violence. Their primary tactic is to shut down their opponents’ free speech, one they constantly attempt to justify, as they attack conservatives and moderates at political rallies and on college campuses across the country.

Pundits on the left are eager to dismiss that they own the modern far left's roots in extreme tactics, instead pointing to slave owners and segregationist of the past as proof of right-wing violence. The truth is that throughout history, both in America and elsewhere, the Left has been indisputably tied to violence and hateful rhetoric.

As The New York Times itself declared in an op-ed published in 2016, "The First Global Terrorists Were Anarchists in the 1890s." In 1901, a radical socialist anarchist named Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley.

The emergence of left-wing domestic terrorist groups such as the Weather Underground, the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the Puerto Rican organization FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional) were harbingers of terror in the 1960s and 1970s. 

A study in 2001, done on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Safeguards and Security, found that "Leftist extremists were responsible for three-fourths of the officially designated acts of terrorism in America in the 1980s." 

Funding for the Hard Left

Most Americans are not aware of the existence of a large network of far left philanthropists and foundations in America that are dedicated to destroying the American way of life, our Christian-based culture and our free enterprise system. What they seek to do is to remove America from its constitutional foundations and move it toward a European-style socialism. Much of this effort is coordinated by a little known group called the Tides Foundation and its related group, the Tides Center.

Four of Tides Center largest supporters are The Heinz Endowment led by John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry; George Soros; the Ford Foundation, which consistently supports causes Henry Ford would never have supported; and the Rockefeller Foundation that has been funding the left in America for 40 years. George Soros, however, is one of Antifa’s main financial sponsors. Soros doesn’t merely fund activism, but he also funds disruptive violence. His costumed baton-wielding squadrons amount to a private army.  It's a militia of paid thugs similar to the Italian Blackshirts and the Nazi Brownshirts.  

A video tweet posted by Beverley Hills Antifa‏ shows Antifa members demanding payments for their services. The quote reads: "ANTIFA DEMANDS GEORGE SOROS PAY US THE MONEY HE OWES. UNITE COMRADES AND FIGHT FOR $15/HOUR. 

Ben Shapiro at Berkeley

The latest show of violence on the left took place on Thursday, September 14, when Conservative radio host Ben Shapiro spoke at the University of California Berkeley while protesters swarmed outside chanting various slogans. Police stood in full riot gear, standing guard as the school took extensive security measures, shutting down surrounding buildings and setting up a large perimeter around the hall where Shapiro gave a speech and answered questions. Shapiro's speech can be heard here. 

Regarding the environment at Berkeley and on many campuses throughout this nation, many students are infected by The Microaggression Mentality, that if I attack your politics, I'm attacking you identity — and that such political attacks are a form of "aggression" equivalent to violence.

ANTIFA and their supporters take the next step and justify their violence as “self-defense” against ideas with which they disagree, which they equate with violence. It doesn’t matter if those ideas are symbolized with burning crosses and swastikas or merely caps denoting support of President Trump’s agenda.

The University played their role in keeping people who wanted to hear Shapiro away. Many of the seats were left unfilled by officials fearing problems controlling a full house, leaving interested attendees stranded.

What should have been protected under the First Amendment of our Constitution, free speech, cost the city and state $1.5 million to maintain order just so Ben Shapiro's free speech could take place. Billing the cost to national organizations, like ANTIFA, and other sponsors of armed protesters, taking away their bank accounts, buildings, computers, and iPhones, as they did with the Missouri KKK, might help to disrupt terrorist activity.  Perhaps fear of arrest, prosecution and ruined careers would help to stem violence, with a possible exception of Bill Ayers at Chicago and Chelsea Manning at Harvard.

Snowflakes exhibit moral weakness

A person on Fox news cited the moral weakness endemic on college campuses, where students need counseling when confronted by ideas foreign to their sheltered existence, while 70 years ago boys their age or younger charged into German machine gun fire on Normandy Beach despite overwhelming odds they would die in the process. The same happened on a smaller scale, no less deadly, on islands in the Pacific, like Peleliu,Tarawa and Okinawa and tradition continues with modern heroes in Iraq, Afghanistan, on other hot spots throughout the world.

That was the “Greatest Generation,” leaving no family untouched in America. We still have those up to the challenge, but who are often lumped with those the Left despises. Small wonder our enemies don’t seem to fear us (until it’s too late).