Always Antifascist

This may be obvious to most of us, but as antifascists it is our job to push back against damaging false narratives when they crop up in communities we are involved with. It is repetitive, frustrating work but very necessary.

The idea that antifascists are mindless thugs who attack random people is a beloved trope of the right which sadly many liberals parrot. The "both sides" idea that antifascists are the moral equivalent of fascists is another common fallacy. These have to be countered rigorously.

The Far Right *lies*. It is their primary media strategy. So if you hear a story that antifa attacked some random bystander, your assumption should never be that story is accurate. In 11 years of doing this we have *never* found a credible case of that actually occurring.

Every time we dug a bit deeper we found that the "innocent victim" is actually a member of the Far Right, was antagonizing people, attacked someone, the story was entirely fabricated, the Right staged the situation, etc, etc

The Far Right has a powerful media apparatus. MSM is often right of center or tries to provide a shallow sense of "balance" by running a smear piece on us for every critique of Nazis. And confirmation bias is a powerful thing.

So these ideas are widely held in the general public regardless of their lack of basis in fact. Even if a statement is proven false, the lingering impact of an accusation remains. We must move the cause of antifascism forward by rebuffing these narratives with great vigilance.

Bear in mind that an antifascist actively involved in a legal case is usually advised to not make any public statement. Thus if the right-wing media is crucifying them, they have no public recourse to defend themselves without jeopardizing their case. Thus we need to defend them.

Also remember that during the COINTELPRO operations a common tactic was for agents to lie, spread false rumors, ruin reputations, and otherwise multiply mistrust and paranoia. So if you hear something disturbing always *go to the source* rather than believing it automatically.