There is no such thing as an organization called Antifa. If we try to browse antifa.com, it currently forwards to whitehouse.gov or antifa.org, which displays a funny tweet about Antifa. Antifa means anti-fascist. If you’re against fascism, you’re Antifa.
As a simple reminder, fascism is a bad way of running a country. It is when one person has all the power, and everyone else has to do what they say. Fascist leaders often use violence and fear to control people. They also often blame other groups of people for the country’s problems.
Between now and the 2024 presidential election year, we will hear the term Antifa thrown around a lot. There are a lot of Americans who actually believe Antifa is a terrorist organization or country.
In the summer of 2020, some Americans believed that cities were burned down by this sinister force called Antifa. Even though ironically, those same Americans, when they were in school, learned about the rise of fascism first in Italy.
Fascist Characteristics
And then, of course, in Germany. Remember Mussolini? Remember Hitler? We learned the characteristics of fascism. A strong and charismatic leader. Usually, a dictator. A nationalist. A man who believes his country is better than all the others—someone who makes promises of a return to glory days that never were. Is it starting to sound familiar?
Fascists demonize media. They don’t trust the media. They declare the media as an enemy. They have disdain for democracy. They have disdain for human and civil rights. They practice overt sexism.
There are many characteristics of fascism, and you know many of them because, sadly, we’re living through some of those right here and right now. This is evidenced by voter-suppression laws being passed in the United States, anti-protest laws when protesting is critical of the government, and immigration detention laws where innocent immigrants are held indefinitely without trial.
Remind people that Antifa is not an organization. It just means anti-fascist. And hopefully, the same people making those accusations realize they, too, are anti-fascist.