As the FT notes today, Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, has promised revenge on what he said was a “vast domestic terror movement”. He has said:
We are going to use every resource we have . . . throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks.
The slight problem for the US administration is that there is no such network.
There is no evidence that the killer of Charlie Kirk was in a network: the evidence is that he acted alone.
Instead, the "network" is apparently made up of television satirists, Democratic Party politicians, those NGOs that want to protect human rights, free speech, the environment and those other groups (including many churches) who promote tolerance, inclusion and equality while demanding that the richest should pay their fair share in taxes.
These are the "network".
They are "Antifa" - those who have the temerity, the gall and the goal of standing up to fascism, which is what they are seeing advance rapidly in their country as the freedoms US citizens have enjoyed, as well as the democracy that they supposedly cherish, are destroyed, corrupted, abused and manipulated for the gain of a few at cost to the vast majorty.
Except there is no "Antifa". There are just people with consciences, a belief in the equality of all people, and a conviction that we all have the right to live and share in co-existence with each other in a way that might leave this planet safe to inhabit for generations to come, whilst delivering well-being at present, which desire is now considered a crime.
And yesterday, Keir Starmer, knowing this was happening, said nothing to condemn it. He did not stand up for free speech, to which he said he was committed, in the process demonstrating what a hypocrite and how unreliable an ally of those who are committed to human rights he really is. He proved it by denying access to the Australian news Channel ABC at yesterday's Chequers press conference at the behest of Trump. Doing so, he indicated his willingness to muzzle the press.
Many in the States are rightly worried about this.
Every journalist at that press conference yesterday (excepting those from GB News and Fox News) will be worried about this.
We should all be worried about this.
I am worried about this. How long is it before WordPress, which provides the software for this blog, or YouTube, which I use for my video channel, and other social media outlets are told that what I write is unacceptable - is "Antifa" (because it is) - and so I must be denied a platform?
Is it years, months or weeks?
And how long will it be before simple attempts to cancel the voices of those who are not fascist, or Zionist, or the supporters of genocide, or who preach a message of love and goodwill will not be enough? When will it be that they begin to disappear?
In 2022, I wrote this. It seems worth sharing this morning:
Five or so years ago, when both my sons were studying GCSE history I took them on a holiday that included a number of sites that were of potential historical interest. So, we went to Ypres, Passchendaele, Köln and Munich. When in Munich we went to the BMW museum and read about its use of slave labour during World War 2. And then we went to Dachau.
Nothing quite prepares you for the walk through the suburban streets that lead to the gates of Dachau. Those streets were there in 1933 when the camp opened. They still are now. They are the streets through which slave labourers walked from the camp to their places of work.
It's also true that nothing quite prepares you for Dachau. How can it?
My sons and I, as I recall it, went into a reveried silence as we began to read the information boards in the admin block of what was the camp.
The history began in 1933. This was the first concentration camp.
After only a few minutes my elder son came up to me and said “They'd have put you in here, Dad.”
The camp's first inmates were political prisoners, trade unionists, clergy and others who politically opposed the Nazis. Social democrats were amongst their number. Jews, and many others, came later. First, the Nazis cleared out their political opponents.
Was my son right? Who knows? But by the time he made the comment he was very familiar with what I did for a living, what I believed, and who I worked with. And that was his opinion.
Why do I oppose fascism? Because they will eventually come for you. That's why.
And now they are coming for those who oppose them. My warning was about something now very obviously happening.
I will keep on opposing it. What other option is there, except to let their message of hate pervade, and that must not happen.
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A resurrection of McCarthy’s hunt for “communists”?
Worse
Thanks for this Richard, a hard hitting post and a warning to us all
Very worrying indeed. However doesn’t this give Trump (and others of his ilk) a rather big problem? How can they go on with their nationalist agenda, banging on about the glorious military victories of WWII when, in fact, the enemy was fascism? Churchill, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Roosevelt and all the allied forces were antifa!
Churchill was an extreme racist. He saw himself part of White supremacy and supported occupation of native people’s lands.
Correct.
In the most extreme scenario (full censorship from american platforms) do we have a plan here in the UK so that we can connect and keep sharing our ideas?
The fortunate thing for us is that the Americans are down-river and can act as a warning. Those who aren’t smelling the smoke just yet *will* before we bend over for Farage – giving us a fighting chance to stop him. The bad news is, an extremely powerful nation that we are so tightly tied to has undeniably now slipped in to early stage facism. Whether we choose to resist or submit, the people of the UK are going to suffer.
Ideas anyone?
What is the alternative?
Interesting that Neil Kinnock is saying one of the reasons the UK economy is flat-lining is Brexit and rejoining the EU Single Market is one way of correcting this. The more this argument is pursued and the longer the flat-lining continues or even turns into recesion the more it becomes apparent that Farage was and is economically illiterate.
It’s reversing reality – portraying decent, honest, caring, compassionate, humourous people who want nothing more than a society that exists and works for everyone as extremists and extremists as decent people. And creating fear in the population – ‘we have terrorists amongst us, trust no one’
WTF (maybe WTATF) is going on. The USA is already a fascist state and we are sleepwalking towards it. Did we learn nothing from the 1930s and what our ancestors fought against in WWII?
Craig
There are indeed terrorists: Trump and co fit the original definition – it’s those in government.
It is unbelievable but it is happening. And while Trump threatens to remove licences from broadcasters that don’t fawn on him in the land of the free, y several hundred Gazan civilians killed during the time of the ‘state visit’.
Thanks for sharing that excerpt from what you wrote in 2022. I remember it well, as it struck a powerful chord with us given we’d visited the site of the Mauthausen camp while in Austria (this camp was in the category where prisoners were classed either as ‘return not desired’, or ‘extermination by work.’). It was also notable as a camp where many of the prisoners were kept permanently outside, as the camp had too many ‘inmates’ for its buildings.
Anyway, it might hearten you to know that there were thousands – and I mean thousands – of people across the OSINT channels I follow pointing out that there’s no such organisation as ANTIFA. Consequently, the order Trump signed labeling it a domestic terrorist organisation is nonsense. That said, and as you point out, I’ve no doubt Trump’s deranged henchmen – of which Miller is one of the worst – know that, and they’ll use the looseness of the definition to go after anyone they want to by simply accusing them of “belonging” to ANTIFA.
Interestingly, someone commenting on one of my OSINT channels included a screen grab of a poster from Nazi Germany which proclaimed that a “Jew” was anyone the authorities defined as a “Jew”. So, in effect, no one was safe. So I dare say Miller and co have been doing some research.
I’ll leave it at that, for today. But once again, all credit to you for repeating the 2022 text and it’s power with regard to what’s happening in the US (and under cover and under our noses in the UK).
Thanks, Ivan.
You get it.
I found a site that gives an American point of view on their politics. This article https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/donald-trump-political-prosecutions-supreme-court/ is pretty terrifying if it is correct about the power that a judge has (perhaps inadvertently and) given to the president and all his henchmen. It may get worse very quickly.
Well, they have come for Palestine Action – 14 years in jail threatened, just for opposing genocide!
would they have a jury trial?
The people who pulled down Edward Coulson ( the slave trader of Bristol) statue were acquitted by a jury.
Would the government take the risk of that?
Antifa cause violence and contributed to the majority of arrests at the big march at the weekend. As ever i’m sure the majority involved are peaceful demonstrators but there is no doubt there is a hard core theo are motivated to cause trouble.
But there is no Antifa, as you well know. And I condemn all violence, and those who exploit it, as it very much looks like you are doing.
My parents also took me to Dachau when I was about 12-ish. It is is indeed a life changing experience.
I still remember the shock that this was possible and it seems we are heading towards the same. History repeats itself… maybe it’s a kind of test: now, that we as humanity know how this is going to end, will we pick the same path?
Ive also been to Dachau and it left a big impact. Also, it’s just outside Munich so you are left thinking – did people really not know?
Then if you go to Berlin there is the magnificent Jewish museum. Stunning architecture with very powerful but understated curation. Most memorable was a hall with a whole series of banners each showing the various acts and laws passed that progressively excluded and alienated Jews from normal life, which laid the foundations for what was to come.
What struck both of us was how redolent it was of Israel and how it has treated Palestinians over the decades. Excluding and discriminating against non-Jewish Israelis, leading ultimately to the genocide we see today. Israelis who live right alongside Palestinian villages that they attack, destroy and annex. Holding a festival within hearing distance of the open prison that is Gaza. And now herding them into ‘camps’. Israelis have learnt over those decades to see Palestinians as an other, less than human.
Truly history is repeating itself, but most Israelis seem incapable of seeing it.
Thanks
There’s a 1971 film, ‘Punishment Park’, which seems relevent to this issue.
Set in an America which seems to be following exactly Miller’s views, except ‘Antifa’ is replaced by a range of ‘enemies of the state’ ranging from pacifists (Vietnam era) through to black rights activists – arrested and tried by hostile courts, all rights suspended.
The film, in mock-documentary style, follows two groups of accused – one at their trials, the other at the Punishment Park of the title .
I wont spoil it for anyone, because its compelling viewing, with a rather grim ending. But what comes out of it is on the one hand the accused are, in your words, people ‘who promote tolerance, inclusion and equality’ , facing an almost rabid court who’ve already decided they’re guilty.
The second thing is the willingness of police and military to oppress their own population, often with disturbing enthusiasm.
The full film is available on Youtube. Watch it and see an increasingly possible future, predicted 54 years ago. There is also a synopsis on Wikipedia.
Thanks, but I think I might give it a miss, I can imagine it.
The surviving greatest generation apparently is a terrorist organization. People like my father, who were strapped to the bottom of the B-17 in the European theater, would’ve been classified as such as we’re all the men who participated in D-Day.
Apparently, the US military during World War II was a terrorist organization according to Stephen Miller and republicans in general.
This coupled with the direct threat of the government, censoring comedy and freedom of expression in general is a clear signal of the nature of the US government.
Somehow, Nepal managed to oust a corrupt government. Time will tell to see how political power get sorted out. I want to emphasize, however, that we in the west will not see an end to the assault on our economic and political decision-making power until wealth and equality is brought to heel. Wealth drives poverty and money is a veil on economic and political decision-making power. Just look at Elon Musk and his desire to incite war in the UK.
No rational society would tolerate this kind of social disruption by a dark triad malignancy brought on by morbid wealth.
How to oppose? The vast majority of citizens in the western world are opposed to fascism almost instinctively given our collective history. It cannot take hold without enough votes to gain power. In the UK, we might have up to 15% of voters who are sympathetic to extreme right-wing policies, bordering on outright racism. Even these people would hate to be called fascists because it is such an insult given our forefathers spilt blood opposing it. The only avenue for fascism in these lands is probably Reform. They will not go anywhere near it, but could try to introduce it by stealth. The MSM will mostly cheer them on, as they have done in the past, but I believe even the faintest hint of fascist associations will sink Farage.
Watch what is happening in the States.
Farage copies Trump.
Of course we could (I am saying could) get fascism.
YouTube has recently implemented censoring of audio on uploaded videos. Currently it is being used to silence words like blood and pus (which makes watching the HoofGP a little farcical), but how long before they start censoring political views using exactly the same technology?
Are the developers this naive, or are they on board with the plan?
Look at a video I will post tomorrow.
Remember, this is Google.
Thought you might enjoy this – posted by Gavin Newsom (yes, that one) – as it features “Wormtongue” Miller.
https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1968689318693568670
🙂
“Antifa” is a very useful label – being originally an anarchist movement it was easy to infiltrate/imitate and used to discredit popular leftist actions (Occupy Wall Street is a good example). Because there is no such organisation as Antifa it is the perfect tool for repression. Just as everything that stands between Israel and it’s goals is Hamas, everything opposing the US government internally is Antifa. Or Kremlin Propaganda, on this side of the Atlantic.
An interesting perspective on Antifa from Chris Hedges you might enjoy reading Richard – https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/we-are-all-antifa-now
Thanks
I went with four Jewish film students to Auschwitz in 2008 while working on a film in Poland. One passed out in the vast room where the hair was stored. They were shuddering with fear. I went then to Majdanek and Dachau, a dreadful pilgrimage. It has never left me. It altered me. I started studying psychology in order to try and understand the reality of those camps. It is a terrible thing to acknowledge, but the hatred of the “other” has never gone away, and I think never will unless we rapidly gain the courage to understand and address our own basic psychology, how we are all capable of being Nazis. We are mostly utterly ignorant about our simplest psychological functions and seem happy to remain that way. The German people who enacted Hitler’s nightmare were not a sudden, virulent offshoot of humanity. They were perfectly ordinary human beings, just like me. The veneer of civilisation is paper thin and eroding fast, but still we refuse to look at our own darkest impulses. Fascism is our politicised collective shadow. I won’t lose hope, but will we ever address that reality? Thanks again for being a compassionate and realistic voice, Richard. You’re a beacon in dark times- Clare
Apart from the USA, of course the present government of Israel are quite obviously terrorists.