Since “antifa” as a formal organization does not exist, Trump’s executive order amounts to a blanket authorization to brand opposition to his fascism as “terrorism.”

On Monday, just one day after the Republican Party staged a Horst Wessel-style memorial for Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Arizona, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating “antifa” a “domestic terrorist organization.”

The order claims that antifa is a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that uses “illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide.”

Antifa, as even FBI Director Christopher Wray was forced to admit in a September 2020 congressional hearing, is not an organization but a broad current of opposition to fascism. “Antifa is an ideology, not an organization,” said Wray, who also testified that the bureau had no data showing any lethal violence committed by the organization.

Since antifa as a formal organization does not exist, Trump’s executive order amounts to a blanket authorization to brand political dissent and opposition to his fascist regime as “terrorism.”

  • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
    91·
    7 hours ago

    And im sure Trump is under the full impression that “antifa” is a group/organization of sorts, whether you or I believe it or not. So he’s basically canceling a non-existent group?

    When this order gets interpreted and implemented, will they be reading Trump’s mind (ugh, sick thought) or will they be reading the order?

    Trump is like King Tommen, happily banging the seal of the King on whatever mommy puts in front of him. Whether or not he has the faintest idea of what he is signing is entirely irrelevant. The people who wrote the order know what they want it to mean, and they won’t be interpreting it any other way. What Trump thinks is far less relevant than what Stephen Miller thinks.

      • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
        3·
        4 hours ago

        I’ll come at it from another direction. The executive order is nonsense from a legal perspective for any number of reasons, but that’s assuming the Trump administration intends to follow the rule of law. I hope it’s pretty obvious by now that we can’t make that assumption.

        Lets say you are an ideological enemy of Trump that the administration want’s to railroad. They use this executive order to prompt the FBI to start digging. The FBI isn’t going to push back and say that antifa isn’t an organization, and they will never have to prove such a thing in court. They still have to find something to charge you with though, but you are a model citizen with no criminal record, and you have never said anything online that could possibly be twisted to sound like a threat. So, you are safe, except…

        Since you have been implicated as a domestic terrorist, the intelligence agencies get roped in. Independent of the FBI, these agencies are the top experts in the entire world at finding your secrets and even at fabricating pretty much any document or other piece of evidence they want. As a terrorist (yeah, they drop the “implicated” part pretty quickly) you are a risk to national security. Suddenly the FBI is getting tips that lead them to whatever they need to put you away for whatever crime is most useful.

        This is exactly how fascist governments operate.