Trumpism and antifa/anti-fascism: “Conservatism” as fan fiction

The Independent recently characterized the Trump 2.0 Administration‘s designation of a concept, “antifa” (anti-fascism), to be a terrorist movement as follows.

Research shows that genuine political violence remains overwhelmingly driven by far-right actors, not nebulous “Antifa” networks. But this, truly, is where MAGA has arrived: a place so far removed from observable reality that it now holds official government functions with imaginary enemies. Once, conservatism prided itself on being “the party of realism.” Today’s version treats politics as fan fiction, complete with invented villains and lore.

Such productive unreality takes the energy that could be spent on governing or solving problems and redirects it into myth-making. Instead of talking about wages, housing or climate disasters, we’ll talk about black-clad anarchists who can’t be fact-checked because they’re mostly imaginary. And then we’ll use their apparent existence to justify masked men with rifles into cities that, it just so happens, didn’t vote for us. You could almost admire the absurdity if it weren’t attached to actual state power. [my emphasis] (1)

Sam Seder and the Majority Report crew recently discussed the Trump 2.0 regime’s scam about “antifa”: (2)

Miles Kenny defines the general concept of “antifa” for the consistently sober Britannica this way:

The roots of antifa are generally traced to the interwar period and specifically to resistance movements provoked by the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany. In the interwar period, fascist movements emerged throughout Europe and were usually met in each country by a corresponding antifascist movement. Fascism eventually succeeded, through politics or military conquest, in seizing power over most of western Europe before and during World War II, and partisan resistance movements fought throughout the continent with varied levels of success. Following the war and the defeat of overt fascism, the memory of these partisans inspired a new generation of activists wary of a resurgence of fascism through the activities of right-wing parties and movements (see fascism: Neofascism). [my emphasis] (3)

In the US, especially over the last decade, there was a rise in prominence of locally-based groups identifying themselves as “antifa” who came to be identified by a particular style:

Antifascism as a distinct political strategy (rather than as a generalized opposition to fascism) is based on several key assumptions. These include the observations that fascist groups typically attempt to utilize the freedoms of liberal democracy—such as freedom of speech and association—to gain enough power to eventually deny the same freedoms to others and that those struggling against fascism should not wait until this denial is realized to militantly resist it. Antifa tactics therefore include “deplatforming” fascists—that is, using both public pressure and physical disruption to prevent fascist opponents from organizing or promoting their own beliefs. In recent times, antifa members have also engaged in doxing, or the sharing of private information about opponents online. This tactic is often used to publicly shame opponents who engage in anonymous online political activity and to pressure workplaces to fire alleged fascists. Antifa has garnered much more attention for its property damage at protests, its disruption of right-wing events, and its targeting of specific right-wing figures, including the American white nationalist Richard Spencer, who was punched in the face in a videotaped assault in 2017. [my emphasis]

But the groups that are part of this political trend are not part of some central nationwide organization or some Jewish conspiracy funded by George Soros, as the Trumpistas like to pretend. And they certainly don’t have armed gangs on anything like the scope that we see on the Trumpista right with armed groups like the Proud Boys, who Trump famously embraced with his message to them: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by!” [my emphasis] (4)

Of course, that was a few years ago. Now the Proud Boy types have an opportunity to become ICE agents and get paid by the federal government to indulge in violence and lawless mayhem.

Notes:

(1) Trump just hosted an ‘Antifa roundtable’ at the White House ... it was so much worse than you’re imagining. The Independent 10/08/2025. <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-antifa-portland-pam-bondi-posobiec-b2842048.html> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(2) Trump Panel Admits Antifa Fought Actual Nazis. The Majority Report YouTube channel 10/11/2025. <https://youtu.be/si5GQmSCpFY?si=O0vgDlziaKbl7KJb> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(3) Kenny, Miles (2025): antifa. Encyclopedia Britannica 10/09/2025. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Antifa> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).

(4) Pilkington, Ed (2021): 'Stand back and stand by': how Trumpism led to the Capitol siege. Guardian 01/07/2021. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/donald-trump-armed-protest-capitol> (Accessed: 2025-09-10).