Far-right conspiracies fizzle amid anti-Trump rallies

In the weeks leading up to the rallies, far-right websites claimed anti-fascists were planning a civil war.

Anti-Trump Protests - NYC [Patrick Strickland/Al Jazeera]
A counterprotester heckles an anti-Trump rally in New York City [Patrick Strickland/Al Jazeera]

New York City, New York – Claims that left-wing activists and anti-fascists (also known as “Antifa”) planned to “behead white parents” and deploy “super soldiers” as part of a bid to launch a civil war turned out to be a series of modest anti-Trump marches in cities across the country. 

Saturday’s demonstrations and marches, which took place in several US cities and largely passed without incident, had been billed by far-right websites as plans to carry out mass bloodshed and execute a coup against right-wing President Donald Trump

RefuseFascism.Org, a left-wing protest group, called for the rallies to “drive out” the Trump administration, sparking a storm of far-right conspiracy theories about anti-fascists’ alleged plans to start a civil war in the country.

A day before the rallies, Fox News dubbed the events the “Antifa apocalypse”, while far-right forums claimed that leftists planned to indiscriminately murder white people on Saturday.

But the rallies were a far cry from the conspiracy theories that had gone viral on far-right websites, with some 300 people assembling in New York City and dozens rallying in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Portland, among others. 

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Speaking to Al Jazeera at the rally, RefuseFascism.Org organiser Carl Dix said far-right websites and social media users spread rumours online because “they wanted to demonise what we’re doing”.

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“They cooked up a conscious lie talking about violence,” he said. “We said from the beginning this was going to be a non-violent protest.”

Rally participants held signs and banners, reading “the Trump-Pence regime must go!”

“I am sexually attracted to indictments,” another sign said.

A handful of pro-Trump hecklers milled around the march, chanting back occasionally, and a brief altercation between a left-wing march participant and a counterdemonstrator was broken up by police.

‘Behead all white parents’

Although RefuseFascism.Org considers itself an anti-fascist group, the organisation is linked to the relatively small Revolutionary Communist Party and is not tied to Antifa chapters and groups that have been clashing with far-right protesters. 

The rumours surrounding the rallies first went viral after InfoWars, a conspiracy theory website headed by Alex Jones, published a story under the title: “Antifa plan civil war to overthrow Trump on November 4”.

After InfoWars ran that story, far-right websites claimed that Antifa “super soldiers” planned to take to the streets and wage chaos and bloodshed.

Gateway Pundit, a far-right website that supports Trump, published an article purporting that Antifa planned to “behead all white parents”, citing a satirical post by comedic Twitter account @KrangTNelson.

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RefuseFascism.Org protest organisers told Al Jazeera they subsequently received a torrent of hateful messages, including death threats.

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Daryl Lamont Jenkins, an anti-fascist researcher and founder of the One People’s Project, said that the far right has a long history of spreading misinformation about left-wing protests.

In June, far-right demonstrators gathered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, after online conspiracy theories claimed that anti-fascists and leftists planned to deface Confederate gravestones at a Civil War cemetery.

Just weeks before that, armed militia members and other far-rightists showed up for a counterprotest in Houston, Texas, after a hoax Facebook page announced that left-wing activists intended to tear down a statue of Sam Houston, a political leader and military figure who fought for the independence of Texas and later advocated the territory becoming a US state.

“This is what defines the far right,” Jenkins told Al Jazeera, describing the conspiracy theories about a civil war on Saturday as “a sign of desperation”.

He said: “They’ve decided to create their own world, and we’re just living in it for some reason. It’s downright pathetic.”

Source: Al Jazeera

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