“Socialism” in the Marxist form, is practically mainstream: Bernie, AOC, Mamdani. The word appears to be cool even with Trump ( even though he likely couldn’t explain it to you, much less where he is at any given moment). But since the murder of Charlie Kirk at the hands of a far-Right gun-nut ( the shooter had all the hallmarks of a Fuentes follower), the government has taken the opportunity to smear and persecute those who explicitly define themselves as Antifa ( anti-fascist) or who relatedly, identify as an anarchist. Below comes care of Seth Stern from The Intercept:
Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in response to a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, during which a police officer was shot. There are numerous problems with the indictment, but perhaps the most glaring is its inclusion of charges against a Dallas artist who wasn’t even at the protest. Daniel “Des” Sanchez is accused of transporting a box that contained “Antifa materials” after the incident, supposedly to conceal evidence against his wife, Maricela Rueda, who was there.
But the boxed materials aren’t Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, or whatever MAGA officials claim “Antifa” uses to wage its imaginary war on America. As prosecutors laid out in the July criminal complaint that led to the indictment, they were zines and pamphlets. Some contain controversial ideas — one was titled “Insurrectionary Anarchy” — but they’re fully constitutionally protected free speech. The case demonstrates the administration’s intensifying efforts to criminalize left-wing activists after Donald Trump announced in September that he was designating “Antifa” as a “major terrorist organization” — a legal designation that doesn’t exist for domestic groups — following the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Now, to many, anarchism is the scariest form of socialism, even to mainstream American’s ears: in part because it encompasses many things, to the point where people see the term as a kind catch-all meaning “no government” or “chaos,” or violent mayhem This is erroneous ( but that is for another diary). Unfortunately, In the late 19th Century, government fear of anarchists may have been warranted as the movement was explicitly violent. Nevertheless, this sort of attack on printed ideas represents a dangerous form of overreach and an explicit abrogation of our first Amendment Rights, but is not a surprise...
