"Antifascism? That's literally fascism"

A phrase spoken only by fascists

For any potential commenters who don't understand, fascism isn't when politically motivated threats of physical violence, it's when far-right-wing, ultra-nationalist, centralized autocracy, belief in and support of social hierarchies, strong regimentation of society and the economy, and politically motivated threats of physical violence

Hey wait a second, one of the political parties in the US fits all those descriptions...

The Paradox of Tolerance

Philosopher Karl Popper described the paradox of tolerance as the seemingly counterintuitive idea that “in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.” Essentially, if a so-called tolerant society permits the existence of intolerant philosophies, it is no longer tolerant.

TL;DR punch a nazi

I too remember in the history books when all the countries banded together holding flowers politely asking the Nazis to stop invading and massacring them.

"All political violence = fascism" 🤡

Hitler lost at the market place of ideas.

Fact.

Fascism is when you commit violence against fascism. Which is bad because fascism isn't violent. Wait a minute...

how we defeated fascism

I must admit I read "defederated".

The "Free Market of Ideas" is just "Heads I win, Tails you lose" by another name

I will defeat fascism in the Marketplace of Ideas... after I defeat them on planet fucking earth, that is.

Should be an assault rifle.

God knows the fascists will have em

Oops accidentally ascribing the urge to do violence to Nazis as political rather than moral is telling.

I don't buy it. There is a really big difference between a nation fighting an existential war with a military, and performative, mostly nonlethal, vigilante political violence. The latter is useful to fascists for obvious reasons; the experience of violence is at the core of their ideology, they have a clear path for using the trauma for hazing and indoctrination, it attracts attention, it attracts potential sympathy for the same reason it may serve the goals of nonviolent protestors to have violence seen being done to them in the course of their protest.

Trying to engage with them this way seems like it would clearly advance their goals more than it would harm them. How could it do otherwise? Do people think activists respond to light beatings by becoming dissuaded from their activism? I feel like this kind of messaging is pushed either by fascists themselves or by people with goals aligned with fascists, like involving more people in violence and bringing the overall political climate closer to a civil war situation.