Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.
A Florida Anarchist Will Spend Years in Prison for Online Posts Prompted by Jan. 6 Riot
Well, if this lengthy write up by Natasha Leonard over on the Intercept isn't enough to make your blood boil, I don't know what it would take to do so. You should read the whole story, but to summarize; a Florida judge just sentenced an anti-fascist to almost four years in federal prison for tweets calling for "armed defense against possible far-right attacks on the state’s Capitol." As Leonard points out, this is obscenely bonkers for several reasons.
First, in the wake of the January 6th Capitol Hill coup attempt, and a widely-publicized FBI warning about possible armed protests by right wing extremists at state capitols, the man (Daniel Baker) had every reason to believe such an attack might happen. Additionally, Baker didn't threaten anyone individually, and took no significant action on the tweet. Finally, the pre-trial and post sentencing total of forty-four months is far longer than most of the fascists who actually tried to overturn an election on January 6th will receive. Yes, you read that correctly; the guy got more time for tweets than armed fascists are getting for trying to hunt down and execute a Vice President.
This story exists at the nexus of so many aspects of the American fascism problem that it's hard to know where to start unpacking them. We're talking about a judiciary and a Justice Department riddled with reactionaries, authoritarians, and fascists; and I don't just mean the ones Trump appointed either. Throw in litigators and fascist-friendly police eager to buttress corporate media claims of a (false) moral equivalency between fascist violence, and those who oppose it. Then you top it all off with a liberal political establishment more than happy to purge the left to appease fascists in right wing politics. Please keep in mind, this is Palooka Joe's DoJ now; Merrick Garland works for him, not Trump.
Look kids, there's a reason I'm constantly telling you to watch what you say on social media, and this is that reason. The machine doesn't need anti-terrorism laws to send leftists to jail for speech in opposition to fascism; they're doing just fine already. It's not an accident when Democrats talk about unity with fascists. Biden doesn't keep blathering on about "anarchists" because he's confused. Liberal antifascism doesn't extend any further than "Orange Man bad," and if they can knife the left to get the GOP to go back to a neoconservative normal, so much the better; it solves two problems for bougie centrists at the same time.
Liberals aren't going to help you fight fascism; they're more likely to throw your ass in jail for threatening order. That's just the bald truth of it.
nina illingworth
Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst.
You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog
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