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I’m sort of concerned by the “it’s a game/LARPing” frame for Antifa v. Proud Boys — not because it’s not arguable, but because I think it confuses several possible definitions for “game.”
There’s an understanding of “game” by which *all* conflicts, from a couple’s mild arguments to world wars, are games. If there are incentives, a set of available moves, and actors to make them, you have a game. These can include *actual* violence.
And there’s the colloquial understanding of “game,” which rests on a much tighter set of mutually-understood rules, a clear group of players distinct from non-players, and transparent win/loss conditions. These can include *simulated* violence (e.g. LARPing, contact sports).
Antifa is playing a game by the 1st standard & not clearly playing a game by the 2nd. I enjoyed @primalpoly & @jmrphy’s interview, but I think it’s irresponsible to call this a game, introduce scattered elements of a colloquial “game” & leave it at that.https://twitter.com/primalpoly/status/1145802255871856640 …
I DON’T think it’s wise to directly compare Antifa to LARPing, because it may give the impression that this “game” is bounded by a rule set that precludes killing. I don’t think Antifa & the similar groups they oppose have a group-level understanding of when the game should stop.
…but I DO think it’s wise to think about this in terms of game theory, to try to understand the meta-level rewards of battles that are clearly pointless on the object level.
To Antifa, Andy Ngo is an enemy, unique to all other journalists. It seems to me that he actually angers Antifa *more* than their stated targets. There’s an obvious reason for this. The meta-level rewards of pointless battles disappear when the pointlessness is made apparent.
There's a real sense in which the true enemy of Antifa in Andy Ngo, in the same sense that the true enemy of the Green Bay Packers is the Brain Injury Research Institute. Antifa is not threatened by fascists; it NEEDS fascists. It is threatened by a narrative that doesn't need it
On the object level, I don’t think we have anything that should be understood as a game, in the colloquial sense. We have a self-selected assortment of masked people entering the public with weapons and making their own individual judgments about who to hit and how hard.
On the meta level, I think we have a group-constructed fantasy where good & evil are defined on the basis of what’s available to score on & where telling stories about taking or throwing punches during planned events translates to points. *This* is a game, a profoundly stupid one
Andy Ngo didn't threaten anyone physically & everyone knows it. What he threatened were the stories upon which these losers do their point-scoring. Within the meta-level game, this MUST be compressed to "Andy is a bad guy." Acknowledging the game would turn its prizes into dust.
I suspect that Antifa is largely fine with the presence of journalists who *take them seriously* whether they write favorably or not. The problem with Andy isn't that he thinks they're "the bad guys," it's that he portrays them as foolish and reckless, whatever their intent.
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