The Violent Left

There is so much I want to say about the violent left, but I don't know where to start.

Lets start with what scares me. AntiFa is a faction of anarcho-communists, who stand against fascism - or at least their definition of fascism. AntiFa is probably, currently, the most active and violent factions of the left in the US (at the very least they're getting the most attention). Their violence in it and of itself doesn't scare me, that just pisses me off. No, what scares is the mentality of the AntiFa, and the consequence of that mindset.

A few years ago I read a book, On Killing by Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman. In his book, Grossman describes how the military used two main tactics to increase the kill rate of their troops. These two tactics are to dehumanize the enemy and to create distance. We can see how AntiFa dehumanizes their opponents in the way they call them fascist or Nazis - the most hated group in history. They then promote, encourage and celebrate punching Nazis, creating a feedback loop. Just like the military that awards, encourages, and celebrates when their soldiers kill their enemies.

AntiFa celebrate punching Richard Spencer who they claim is a Nazi.

Humans have strong inhibitions against killing other humans, but not so much for non-humans.

The next tactic is creating distance. During the wars, the military noticed that the soldiers who had the easiest time killing were the ones furthest from the front lines - artillery men, bombers, and the navy to name a few. The reason for this, they hypothesized, was because of their distance between them and the consequences of their actions.

We can see this too in the behavior of AntiFa. They use mask, anonymity, and groups to create psychological distance (what Grossman called emotional distance), and then they use flag poles, bricks, M80s, bats, and pepper spray to create physical distance. All this helps remove them from the consequences of their actions.

Flags and bats, their preferred weapons.

These two tactics serve to lower people's inhibitions against killing humans, and you can see how easily it has served AntiFa to cause violence. Their violence has yet to kill anyone, but they have come close when they knocked a man unconscious and continued to beat him.

It gets worse. These anarcho-communists are SJWs, and what we know about SJWs is that they love to be the victims. How is this worse? Because as communists, they see themselves as revolutionists, and what is the ultimate victim: a martyr.

All of the recent behavior of these communists falls under what the law would call an imminent threat of serious bodily harm, and or death, which justifies the use of deadly force for self-defense.

I think this is their end goal. They want to die as martyrs in their "revolution" in order to swing favor away from the right and thus regain the power and control that they've lost. When the left turned to violence, they lost the argument, and violence is all they have left to regain what they lost.

They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.