Trump’s executive order against Antifa directs the government to track down, arrest, and disrupt the group and its funding sources. However, Antifa is not a formal group but an idea. What’s next in Trump’s war against abstract concepts?
Trump’s War on Ennui
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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“War on Ennui” is really funny, especially since there was hope that Trump would declare Ennui on War. Oh well.
Let me push back on “Antifa” being merely a concept.
Of course it is no formal organization.
Still, if you ask a leftist from the autonomous scene in Germany what Antifa is, they may tell you about the time Neonazi hooligans actually took over a refugee “village” in Germany – the place where they dump the asylum seekers pending due process. The police were slow to mobilize in any numbers so those thugs terrorized the hell out of the refugees with impunity, really classy… That is, until the buses filled with left activists, many from the punk scene, showed up and drove the right-wing thugs out.
At its root Antifa means building street-fighting power for political ends because the police can’t be trusted not to look the other way. A live tradition, not (just) from anarchist first principles, and not (just) from the historical fact that the police failed to prevent the Nazi takeover in the 1930s.
There are many crucial differences btw Antifa in Germany and in the US – including the large presence of guns, and the lack of an actual historical fascist coup. Then again there are those ICE goons.
Naturally “Antifa” isn’t really a political factor in the US so they keep redirecting towards centrist democrats. Perhaps it’s merely an expression of this instinctive animosity towards groups who do not know their place, e.g. black panthers. Perhaps they just needed a name for their imaginary villain.
Still, perhaps some of them are seriously considering a coup as an option, and gaming out where opposition would come from…