The Lifeboat News: Antifa as astroturf?

Antifa and their destructive distractions

The mainstream media has devoted a fair amount of attention to the violent clashes and even riots that have broken out during the past year or so in Berkeley, Philadelphia, and most recently Portland, among other places in the States. These seem to me little more than destructive displays of the stupidity of a select few.

Still, those who control the media must find them useful, or they wouldn’t give them so much press. At the least they serve to boost viewership ratings, but I think it’s deeper than that.

These events, although perpetrated by a small minority, seem well staged and promoted to keep a much greater mass of the people divided and distracted.

I think this is more of a game, staged on Astroturf, than a real grassroots movement that can set brushfires in thinking minds.

Astroturf may melt and smolder when lit, but it doesn't burn very well.

Hoodlums, not Heroes

"The only hope these hoodlums and their backers have is to convince enough people that they’re heroes, rather than hoodlums. Heroes, including martyrs, can do wonders to motivate people who are bound by some common sense of identity, and better yet of suffering. Recent research shows that shared feelings of pain and suffering can motivate extreme self sacrifice for one’s group, including suicide bombings. But, can these antifa hoodlums inspire a sufficiently large number of people to take real risks to join them?

"Although many Americans are disgusted and fed up with politicians and the media –and rightly so-- most people also have too much to lose. Furthermore, I don’t think most Americans feel solidarity with antifa or “share their pain”. It’s not in the interest of responsible people to support such empty-headed destruction. "

https://steemit.com/news/@lanimal/antifa-astroturf-vs-real-brusfires-of-the-mind