Over the weekend, a gang of violent, fascist cowards ironically known as Antifa gathered for a violent riot in downtown Portland. Every Antifa gathering is a violent riot. The group exists for no other purpose than to stage these riots. This one was even worse than usual.
Andy Ngo, a conservative journalist, was swarmed and assaulted by a mob of Antifa terrorists as he attempted to cover the demonstrations. Ngo was beaten and sprayed with various substances, some of which reportedly included milkshakes laced with cement mix. The attack put him in the hospital with a brain bleed. He was lucky. Some of the Antifa punks were wielding metal pipes and crowbars. A man was sent to the emergency room with severe gashes in his head after he was beaten with a pipe while trying to defend an older man who was being beaten with a crowbar.
Although these people are, individually, a bunch of effeminate weaklings who look like they could barely hack it in an introductory yoga class, they are nonetheless dangerous terrorists. Even effeminate weaklings become a serious threat when they form large groups and wield blunt instruments. Antifa should be relentlessly mocked as the gang of basement-dwelling losers that it is, but it must also be condemned as a terrorist organization and as a threat to society.
If you look to our illustrious collection of Democratic Party presidential candidates, however, you will find no such condemnation. As of this writing, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and all the rest have uttered not a word of disapproval towards Antifa. A journalist was sent to the hospital with a brain injury, a man was bludgeoned with a crowbar, anarchists reigned terror in the streets of a major American city, and the men and women who wish to lead our country in 2020 could not bring themselves to mention it — let alone denounce it.
The liberal media remained mostly silent, as well. The most passionate denunciation of Antifa came from Brian Stelter, CNN’s “media correspondent.” Stelter often focuses his show on real or perceived attacks against the media, so he had no choice but to acknowledge the fact that a member of the media was viciously assaulted while trying to do the actual work of journalism. But Stelter only spent 40 seconds discussing the riot, which he characterized as a “protest,” and the harshest term he could conjure up to describe the brutal beating of a journalist was to deem it “unacceptable.” Then he quickly went to a commercial break and moved on.
Meanwhile, as the media and the Democrats ignored Antifa’s horrific violence, prominent leftists took to social media to outright defend it. One verified Twitter user advocated bludgeoning her political opponents with bricks. A staffer at the Human Rights Coalition blamed Ngo for his own assault, claiming that he “provoked” his attackers. This was all par for the course.
Let us now imagine how different the reaction would be if these Antifa punks were Trump supporters. Imagine that a crowd of rioters in MAGA hats brutalized a CNN reporter — Jim Acosta, let’s say — and sent him to the emergency room with a brain injury. Imagine that they ran through the streets swinging crowbars and lead pipes and assaulted random passersby. We all know what would happen next. Wall-to-wall media coverage for the next week, at least. Statements of fiery condemnation from every Democrat in the country — especially presidential candidates — who would rush to the nearest camera to issue resolute and emotional statements. We don’t even need to imagine it. This is exactly what happened when a group of high school boys smiled at a Native American man back in January.
It would be an understatement to merely call this a double standard. It’s that, but it’s also something more. One cannot escape the conclusion that many leftists in this country — to include the ones who lead the Democratic Party and the media — will not condemn Antifa because they do not disagree with Antifa’s aims or its tactics. They, too, believe that those of us with the wrong opinions have no right to be safe and secure as we espouse those opinions. They, too, want to beat their ideological foes with lead pipes. But it would not be politically expedient for them to do it themselves. So they let Antifa handle the dirty work while they sit on the sidelines and quietly smile.