Is Left Wing Antifa a Terrorist Group? You Bet It Is

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham said Tuesday that it’s time to start thinking about declaring the left wing radical group Antifa “a terrorist organization,” in light of its public violent outbursts.

“We should also urge everyone to consider pressing this idea of declaring Antifa a terrorist organization,” Ingraham said during an interview on “Fox and Friends.” “This group is trying actively to intimidate, suppress free speech and violently attack people with whom they disagree.”

This got me thinking: What is a terrorist organization? We have to be careful. In a totalitarian country, for example, the government can declare anyone who criticizes it as “terrorist” and therefore illegal. When we talk about terrorism, the terms have to be objective and respectful of what a free society requires.

I define a terrorist organization as one that initiates the use of force against others or threatens its use. In a way, it’s just another word for criminal. But terrorists like to use psychological tactics to attain their goals. They seek to use threats – hopefully credible ones, backed up by occasional follow-through on violence – to get people to do what they want.

Even though we’re not supposed to criticize Islam at all, Muslim terrorist organizations provide the best example of terrorism today. Muslim activists are a thin-skinned bunch of people who resent living on the same planet with anyone who disagrees with them. They want everyone to be afraid of them, because it’s a way of attaining the power they seek as well as a false sense of serenity. Just as an alcoholic or heroin addict seeks a sense of serenity through invalid means, a power-oriented religious fundamentalist will use terrorism to attain submission through intimidation and, when that fails, occasional violence and brutality.

By these standards, Antifa totally qualifies as a terrorist movement. First, they smear. Anyone who disagrees with them is a fascist and a Nazi. If you’re a white supremacist who wishes to put Jewish, gay or other nonconforming people into a concentration camp, you’re a Nazi. Yet you’re also a Nazi if you support a free market in medicine, want to reduce government regulation or seek a strong national defense and immigration policy to keep out objective threats. That’s the intimidation Antifa uses. “Either you agree with me, or you’re a Nazi.” No reasonable or just person wishes to be called a Nazi, because no reasonable or just person IS a Nazi. But once you’re afraid, you quiet down because – well, it’s just not worth it.

Or let’s say you support Donald Trump. Maybe you like everything about him, or maybe you like a couple of key things about him, and strongly prefer him over the alternative. Consequently, you might want to go to a Donald Trump rally or speech to see him live. Not if Antifa has its way. Antifa does everything it can – with increasing success, it seems – to intimidate police forces into backing down. A pro-Trump group actually had to cancel a rally in San Francisco recently because of Antifa (or equivalent) threats. During the campaign and since the election, peaceful Trump supporters have been physically attacked and threatened again and again by Antifa mentalities. And no conservative speaker can safely enter a university campus any longer, whether it’s Milo Yiannopoulos or George Will, thanks to Antifa and similar movements. Yes, I’d call all of that terrorist.

Terrorists are violent and criminal, but that’s not their primary function. Their primary function is psychological. They prey upon the reasonable desire of all peaceful people to be left alone, and not have unnecessary trouble in their lives. They make it NOT worth the while of anyone to take a stand the terrorist does not like. Families are populated with psychological “terrorists”, and societies are populated with terrorist organizations. Their goal is always the same: To get you to shut up and do what they want.

Islamic terrorist groups as well as Antifa groups are making a lot of headway in this battle for psychological intimidation. They can’t win without our consent. The one thing they fear is the willingness and ability of the reasonable and “average” person to push back, and to literally say (and mean), “I’m not taking your bullying anymore.” With the exception of the hated Donald Trump, virtually none of our politicians, officials or so-called leaders seem willing or able to do this. As a result, terrorists like Antifa are having a field day.

It can only go on so long as we let them.