I seem to recall seeing a video or reading an article where they mention that the media turned antifa into a sort of separate word to warp its meaning. Instead of saying anti fascist, which has a clear meaning, they shortened it and changed the pronunciation 'an teefa' (something to do with which syllable you emphasise) so they could distort its meani g and demonise the word to make people think it was bad.

So now people dont realise antifa means anti fascist which is surely a good thing to be, and instead, they fear antifa as some kind of terrorist group, which is almost the opposite of what it is.

The funny thing is, as an outsider to this, living in the UK, our media doesn't ever use the term, and when i heard it, my instinct was to look up its meaning. It's interesting to me that i won't know if i would have fallen for it if the media were using it in the same way over here to lead my understanding of its definition

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 32 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I think Antifa actually started in the UK even before the Nazi's. Eh actually not but they did fight against fascists in the UK as early as 1930.

The reason why we need antifa and why it's hated by the mainstream is because the establishment is notoriously bad at stopping fascism. There is a long history of it. So besides liberal antifa that uses legal means like suing the KKK out of existence, the autonomous antifa is actually needed for the continued working of our democracy.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Antifa (Antifaschistische Aktion) under that name started in 1932 as action by the KPD to organise widest possible front against the nazis, in the face of SPD as a party being very reluctant to act against nazis. Many SPD members did joined, but as we know, their own party in reichstag made that futile.

Of course antifascist resistance is about as old as fascism or even older considering protofascists activity even before Mussolini coined the term, but the name itself is from 1932 KPD.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Afaik, the first Antifa were a coalition of left wing groups in Italy fighting fascists in the 1920s. They didn’t necessarily use the term but they were the first active anti-fascists so that counts in my book 🤷

As a side note, they were left to fight both the fascists and the royalists alone, since the Italian Liberals refused to get involved until it was clear who would win and then joined the fascists.

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think that is the lesson, liberals do not effectively fight against fascism because they are too desiring of orderly and calm and polite politics and too much powered by economic interests (bourgeois). So we actually rely on antifa as a social force. Neither the state nor the liberals will fight against it. At least that is my limited understanding of it, since this is never discussed about in mainstream media.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

liberals do not effectively fight against fascism because they are too desiring of orderly and calm and polite politics and too much powered by economic interests

Absolutely 100% correct.

So we actually rely on antifa as a social force.

We need to, yes.

Neither the state nor the liberals will fight against it.

Right you are again!

At least that is my limited understanding of it, since this is never discussed about in mainstream media.

Seems to me you understand it perfectly but yeah, the mainstream media is for-profit and owned by billionaires who are often friends with or at least have common interests with the fascists, so they have very logical, if despicable, reasons to be hands-off about it.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

But the shorthand and pronunciation Anteefa seems to be relatively new. I don't recall the specific word before 2016.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

They have a constant and desperate effort to invent words they can’t define that categorize their blind rage since they’re not allowed to say one that starts with N. “Woke” is the newest one.

[–] TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that's bullshit. There isn't some secret cabal that's in charge of US journalism anymore than there is in the UK. What really happens is that because the old news-media business models have been utterly destroyed by the Internet, there's a giant and never-ending competition for audience and everyone knows that sensationalism sells.

You have a similar problem in the UK but it's not as pronounced because the BBC is government funded and even though it's far from perfect, it does set a kind of baseline. Your other big news organizations are just as bad as in the US though. Your tabloids are actually a lot worse than ours, which is saying something.

[–] Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

It was donald trump himself that started it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52868295

And you know how.his followers hang on his every word. I mean, he literally incited a riot/assault on capitol.

I see your point, but i dont see how the old news being taken over by internet news changes who is in control of the narrative. I also dont think i was referring to any kind of "secret cabal."

I was only saying that i heard or read somewhere that antifa was demonised in the media, and thats why so many think they are terrorists. If you ask most americans what antifa means, they don't know. They only know the abbreviation 'antifa' and that they are scared of it.