Antifa Saved Their Lives”: Report from Clergy at Charlottesville

"A few times a day, I group text with two of my closest friends, Brandy and Jen. It was a normal day on Thursday, August 3 when we were texting about our typical subjects: academia, politics, our writing (or lack thereof!), dating, and hanging out with each other again. None of us live near each other so this is the best way to keep in touch. Shortly prior to this particular group text message, Brandy moved to Charlottesville, Virginia for a post-doctoral fellowship in the Religious Studies department at the University of Virginia. I live fairly close to Virginia so I asked Brandy when she wanted me to come visit her during the month of August. She joked at one point in the group text that I could come down and join the clergy counter protest for this Alt-Right rally entitled “Unite the Right,” which was supposed to take place on Saturday, August 12th. If you watch the news for any decent amount of time, you know who the Alt-Right are and what they believe. I did not think it would be a particularly memorable event, and without much thought, I agreed to attend so I could protest with my friend. I then signed up for the Clergy Call organized and led by phenomenal leaders Seth Wispelwey and Smash Patty in local congregations in Charlottesville. Little did I know what was coming for us.

A few days later, I received an email from the Clergy Call organizers warning about the dangers of attending the counter protest against the neo-Nazis at the Unite the Right rally. I read the email with some concern, but I still had no idea what was coming for us. I told Brandy that due to personal reasons, I could not risk getting arrested right now. She told me I could still attend the protest and be the designated person to bail her out of jail. I quickly agreed..."

https://itsgoingdown.org/antifa-saved-their-lives-report-from-clery-at-charlottesville/

Oh good... more anecdotal fake news. Just when we were missing seagoat.

PkrBum wrote: Just when we were missing seagoat.

What a scumbag you are, PkrBoy, you pedophile-loving sicko!

Deus X wrote:

PkrBum wrote: Just when we were missing seagoat.

What a scumbag you are, PkrBoy, you pedophile-loving sicko!

You forgot nazi and racist. You people are pathetic with your slurs. Too afraid to stand eye to eye.

PkrBum wrote:

Deus X wrote:

PkrBum wrote: Just when we were missing seagoat.

What a scumbag you are, PkrBoy, you pedophile-loving sicko!

You forgot nazi and racist. You people are pathetic with your slurs. Too afraid to stand eye to eye.

Try it yourself drug abuser.

PkrBum wrote:

Deus X wrote:

PkrBum wrote: Just when we were missing seagoat.

What a scumbag you are, PkrBoy, you pedophile-loving sicko!

You forgot nazi and racist. You people are pathetic with your slurs. Too afraid to stand eye to eye.

Not a slur. Truth is an affirmative defense to the accusation of libel or slander. Your own statements condemn you.

I'm not always in favor of Antifa instigating things (which they don't always do), but I am in favor of them defending people when Nazis attack them. Without them, you get things like this.

But, of course, a lot of the pitiful piddle-dribbling sacks of shitty-parented garbage who spend all their time here whining about Antifa (and, oddly enough, Black Lives Matter, which isn't about violence, but raises their ire because they don't like seeing black people asserting themselves) don't really care about that because Deandre Harris is... y'know.

Nope, not one word about Deandre Harris, or Heather Heyer, or the other people run over, or the innocent clergy who were attacked by the Nazis, or the whole town that was terrorized by the "blood-and-soil"-screaming torch-bearing pieces of shit. Nope.

All they worry about is the poor Nazis getting punched. Because that's who their sympathies are with. Those are the ones with whom they identify, far more than the targets of the bigots. The people who fight back against the racists are the "bad guys" in their viewpoint.

If the Nazis showed up in their town, you better believe -- for all their talk of making people pick up their teeth and other tough-guy horseshit -- they'd give the Nazis a fucking pass to take over the place. They'd either be on the Nazi's side, screaming at "the left," or -- more likely -- they'd be hiding in their house hoping it'd all go away, because hey, they aren't black or Latino or Jewish. Ain't their fight, right? The hell with Deandre Harris, or Heather Heyer, right? Better to live as a crawling, spineless, passive little suck-up lickspittle and pretend you're just for "free speech," even when your fellow citizens are being terrorized by mobs marching around, waving fascist flags, shouting fascist slogans, flirting with genocidal ideas.

And then these people whine that people hold them accountable for siding with the Nazis. Sorry, but if someone spends far more time crying about the people who fight back than they do about the racists who terrorize towns, people stop giving 'em the benefit of the doubt that they aren't a bigot. And, sorry again, but that's not only understandable, it's the inevitable conclusion for people to make about them. Benefit of the doubt's not taken from them -- they abdicated it. And given the chance, I'll absolutely tell them that to their faces, because they've fucking earned it, and I have no fear -- nor respect -- for people who defend the Nazi scum they're defending.