Trevor Noah discussed the topic of Antifa on "The Daily Show" this week, giving a scathing review of their more violent tactics.
During his coverage of the group, Noah deemed the group "Vegan ISIS," criticizing them for justifying their violent actions.
As the segment began Noah started by jokingly admiring the group's name saying, "It's short, it's punchy -- excuse the pun -- and most importantly, you don't have to know how to spell fascist." He went on to discuss Antifa's role in American today.
Then things took a turn, and Noah began the conclusion of his segment by showing a much darker side of the anti-fascist group.
"Some of Antifa say they just want to burn it all down," Noah said during his piece. The Daily Show host followed up with footage of Antifa protesters destroying public property and attacking people in the streets.
The video clip then showed an Antifa chapter leader Lacy Mccauley trying to justify the violent actions of the group saying, "breaking a window is a symbolic act, windows break all the time, things break all the time." Noah ridiculed her justification, and made a point to note that these tactics don't do any good, but only tarnish the peaceful actions of other members.
Noah called the group "Vegan ISIS" and compared punching Nazi's to punching "your cause" saying "the real problem is you guys."
The segment went on to show negative media coverage of the group while Noah warned that violent attacks only further the media's ability to portray the group as an evil and ironically "fascist" element in the country.
Whether the conservative or liberal movement agrees with Noah, it is highly important to recognize that at this point of division in the country, extremist ideologies have been offered a seat at the table, and that makes problems for everyone. Racism and bigotry should be denounced and defeated but within the realm of debate and free speech, not by the violent force of anarchists and far-left extremists.
Noah seems to be wary of this group's ambiguous end goal, and if we don't want to live in a post-free-speech anarchist United States, maybe more people should feel that way, too.
There is no clear power structure for this group and its methods and motives differ based upon the actions of each member. That's a dangerous ambiguity in this day and age and more people should be calling it out.
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