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Comment by downerending | Hacker News Reader

Essentially everyone is against Nazis/etc. Antifa has rather different goals--otherwise we'd just call them people.

“Essentially everyone is against Nazis/etc.“ I used to think that, too, but I think the last few years have made it clear that there are still plenty of “Nazis/etc” out there—certainly enough of them that the rest of us should be concerned.

Unfortunately normal folks may begin to appear as "Nazis" when you have been sufficiently radicalized. Very little has effectively changed in the past few years, aside from the extreme polarization of the media.

Unfortunately Nazis may also appear to be “normal folks“ if you have been sufficiently radicalized.

Antifa originated in 1930s Germany … where, obviously, plenty of people were not against Nazis or fascists.

Antifa today is still pretty firmly focused on anti-fascist action.

I thought you were going to link them to the brownshirts. Certainly they seem similar in many regards. I can't think of anything good to say about someone who thinks vigilante violence is a noble act.

Are you claiming they're descended from the Reichsbanner? Do you have a source for that?

No, I mean the label Antifaschistische Aktion and its abbreviation Antifa literally originated with labor groups opposing the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party.

I'm not a historian, but understanding is that there isn't real continuity between that antifa (labor and communist anti-Nazi groups) and the modern antifa (the punk-direct-action-aesthetic antifa), which came about much later in the century, but that the name and association was adopted intentionally.

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