If you don’t have a problem with milkshaking, how do you feel about this?

[Jillyhilly]

I was struck by the fact that some mumsnetters didn’t seem particularly bothered by assault when it’s “just” a milkshake - particularly when the target of that milkshake is someone whose politics they don’t agree with.

I just wondered if the latest milkshaking attacks recipe - adding quick drying concrete - might change minds?

A group of masked Antifa “protestors”, attacked Andy Ngo- a right-leaning journalist with Quilette - in Portland, that lovely hotbed of radical left wing politics.

Ngo was punched and kicked. Eggs and concrete-infused milkshake was chucked at him. (When wet, concrete acts as a chemical that burns skin.) But hey, it’s all perfectly understandable because Antifa didn’t like the fact that he’s a conservative. And, understandably, wanted to silence him. So they attacked him. A whole masked gang of them against a small, effete gay Vietnamese immigrant. He spent the night in hospital with a bleed on the brain.

That was day 1. On day 2, they beat up an elderly man with a crowbar. All in the name of anti-facism. Heroic!

Did anyone really think that milkshaking wasn’t always going to lead to something worse? And what the hell is going on in Portland? And why are some left-wing journalists celebrating Ngo’s attack? And why in the world are people are worried about their kids being radicalised by little conservative Ben Shapiro when they really ought to be looking in the opposite direction?

But antifa is a collective action? And there are lots of anti fascists working to raise awareness and challenge the right-wing narrative that would have us sleepwalk into totalitarianism.

Also, why do you say antifa aren't working class? And why imply that they should be working class to protest? I genuinely don't understand

Ooh, I like this game. Can I play?

"If you don't have a problem with your kids squirting water at each other, how do you feel about them squirting BATTERY ACID at each other?"

Ngo is an fascist.

A fascist is a follower of a political philosophy characterized by authoritarian views and a strong central government — and no tolerance for opposing opinions.

I'll admit he seems like he might be racist but he doesn't seem to fit much of the criteria for fascism.

I don't condone violence, it's never the answer. But I'm not going to lose any sleep over that scumbag.

What is the point of laws and principles if we only apply them to those we agree with? What freedom of speech do we have if we can only say popular things?

Challenging fascism requires a united front and raising political consciousness. It requires collective action and not just random attacks on individuals who say things that we disagree with.

I'm pretty sure that literally was the hallmark of the rise of fascism last time.

Just watch the video Doobigetta. he has a few drinks and liquid thrown at him and wanders away fine. No concrete involved.

How do you feel about the hypothetical murdering of kittens by conservatives OP? im potentially disgusted.

Thats not what fascism is, donquixotedelamancha. It a neccessaily right wing ideology of militarism, extreme nationalism, ethnic cleansing, racial superiority, state monopolys and cronyism, anti-socialist/marxist, extreme conservatism.

Or are you not concerned with the fresh rise of fascism?

Is there a fresh rise though?

I remember there being pretty regular violence between left and right groups like antifacist action and combat 18 when I was growing up in the 90s (remember the names because someone lost an ear in a fight near where I lived and it was talk of the school for about a year after).

Seems not much has changed since.

Yes there is.

nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/rise-of-the-far-right-is-a-global-security-threat.html

I think it is a bit naive to think that anyone who puts on a mask and says they are antifascist is genuinely antifascist. In Mexico, groups like these have always been easily infiltrated by government paid agents provocateurs.

Beating up journalists is always wrong, even if they are "fascist".

Ah well if New York Magazine says it is so, then it must be so. Conclusive evidence indeed.

The people comparing Nigel Farage to Hitler need to get a fucking grip

This thread is terrifying.

If left-wingers can chuck milkshakes at the right, then can the right chuck milkshakes at the left? Probably not. The left believe that people who understand there are two sexes are committting a hate crime!

So believing that there are two sexes is worse than chucking a milkshakes?

It is rather alarming, isn’t it?

Posters here are openly admitting that they’re happy when people are assaulted, as long as those people are on the right. Or they deny that an assault happened - oh he was thumped and kicked and things were thrown at him, but he could still walk away after the attack, so no harm done. They won’t lose sleep over an individual being attacked, because he was on the right and pretty much deserved it. It’s all ok, it’s all justified because the attackers are “fighting fascism”.

But it’s not ok. It’s really not ok at all.

I don't much care for Antifa, I'd prefer to see large scale peaceful protests. That said, Antifa seemed to pop up (in the mainstream) in response to right-wing violence. It's funny how the people who focus on calling out milkshaking (which I don't agree with) seem to turn a blind eye to the murders and violence by those on the right.

The US right has really gone to hell. Electing a man who has been accused of multiple rapes and sexual assaults; implementing policies of child torture to dissuade immigrants, appointing a judge accused of sexual assault to the Supreme Court, trying to ban people of a certain faith from the country, some on the right marching with torches chanting 'Jews will not replace us', abortion being criminalised, police officers keeping their jobs after lobbying for the extermination of LGBT people... it's all so fucking awful that I don't really get too worked up over spilt milkshakes.

I feel like I've wandered into a parallel universe ... wtf?

The US right has really gone to hell. Electing a man who has been accused of multiple rapes and sexual assaults; implementing policies of child torture to dissuade immigrants, appointing a judge accused of sexual assault to the Supreme Court, trying to ban people of a certain faith from the country, some on the right marching with torches chanting 'Jews will not replace us', abortion being criminalised, police officers keeping their jobs after lobbying for the extermination of LGBT people

I don't really understand what you are trying to say here. Because it sounds like you are saying that if the label of being right-wing is attached to someone, they deserve what they get?

I live in Mexico and we have a long list of murdered journalists. Is that only bad because they were left-wing journalists?

I don't really understand what you are trying to say here. Because it sounds like you are saying that if the label of being right-wing is attached to someone, they deserve what they get?
I'm trying to say that, whilst I don't approve of milkshaking, given the murders and violence by a handful of people on the right and a political climate that has seen increased racism, homophobia and misogyny, I find it hard to get particularly worked up over milkshaking and am skeptical of those who seem to want to turn it into the political issue of the day.

Assuming it was unprovoked, and no matter how repugnant I find his views, I don't condone the attack on Ngo.

Dont play the 'concerned neutral' act please. Your game is obvious.

What do you thinof those socialists who thought back against the SS and SA in munich, or international brigades in spain? were they wrong? lets have some actual answers instead of endless lies.

www.ft.com/content/d22a3348-472d-11e9-a965-23d669740bfb

www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/european-elections-can-anything-halt-the-rise-of-the-far-right-1.3900972

thinkprogress.org/series-of-arrests-highlights-rise-far-right-germany-476829dde51a/

www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/genocide-expert-compares-europe-rise-nazis-190501165155263.html

time.com/5395444/europe-far-right-italy-salvini-sweden-france-germany/

What do you know that these people dont?

Well the information I have is that Andy Ngo was taken to hospital with a bleed on the brain from a beating he received from so-called antifas. I also saw a video of those thugs beating an old man up.

Milkshakes are the least of my concerns.

The press have now published that there was no evidence of such things.

Just another example of people believing everything they read.

(The fast drying cement in milkshake that is - I don’t even think that’s possible scientifically!)

And no, antifa are not fascists

Well, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and smashes people about the head with weapons while stealing their camera equipment like a duck...oh, wait...

The use of mob violence against people you hate turns people against the cause you support. A far better method was displayed recently in Ostritz, Germany, where the far-right held a rally and music festival. The authorities had no legal reason to prevent the event, but they could, and did, deny the sale and consumption of alcohol on site. Realising this would mean attendees would buy beer from local outlets for consumption off-site, the local residents went and bought ALL the beer on sale in the local area.

“Well the information I have is that Andy Ngo was taken to hospital with a bleed on the brain from a beating he received from so-called antifas. I also saw a video of those thugs beating an old man up.

Milkshakes are the least of my concerns”

This^ a 100 times. Why are you all focusing on the milkshake not the severe beating?

None of us know 100% about the milkshake but we watched two men being beaten because of their political views. How can you defend this?

I'm a bit skeptical about the way the story of the elderly man being beaten is being presented. Apparently a gay man in a dress was being chased down the street and, we're told, the grey-haired man was also chasing, trying to help the gay man, when he got attacked. It seems either he was part of the mob or was mistaken for it. I don't think he was attacked for his political views.

FWIW, even if he was part of the mob, he ought to have been restrained and not beaten. I don't agree with corporal punishment in any context, let alone by vigilantes, and some of the violence sounds/looks brutal.