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?

Just because people don't see the problem with milkshakes being thrown doesn't mean they don't see the problem with chemicals and physical violence. YABU to even imply this.

Ignoring all of the other issues, and having never commented about milk shaking before....

Do I think that chucking a milkshake at a right wing politician is an intelligent or mature way to get your point across? No.
Is it something that I would do? No. Never.
Do I think it's OK for concrete or other chemicals to be added and chucked? Also no. Not even a question.

Would I laugh if I saw Donald Trump splattered with milkshake from head to toe? I would laugh solidly for a week. No matter how much I try to take the moral high ground, the sight would just make me weak with laughter.

Politicians have always been egged etc - remember John Prescott? It's not particularly clever, but equally it's never escalated to anything more. If that genuinely changes then perhaps I'd alter my view but it would take a hell of a lot to stop me laughing at strawberry milkshake dripping from Trump's firmly starched hair. Or a stream of chocolate milk trickling down Tommy Robinson's face.... #sorrynotsorry

The bleed on the brain stuff is also bullshit. Its just relentless.

Anyone using violence of any kind to achieve political goals should be punished to the full extent of the law. There is no justification for this violence whatsoever. It is frightening and out of control.

I repeat - it is astonishing that people are justifying this. There is NO justification. Not “it didn’t happen” (because the video footage shows that it did). Not “well it wasn’t as bad as it was reported”. Not “he deserved it”. Not “the far right is on the rise so it’s understandable”. Not “there wasn’t actually any concrete in the milkshakes”.

Andy Ngo was violently attacked by the left for his political opinions.

The Antifa/Portland situation is incredibly alarming. It’s been going on for months now - smashing people and property, screaming insults at police, disrupting traffic, blocking entrances to hospitals and intimidating ordinary Portland citizens. Antifa are a bunch of emotional children, apparently radicalised by the left to believe that America is the worst place on the planet and the state should be smashed. And they never achieve anything remotely useful. If anything, they will help to re-elect Trump as more and more people look on in amazement at what is happening on the west coast.

And the most bizarre thing is that the Mayor of Portland pretty much refuses to do anything about it. Antifa pretty much has the run of the city. He has on numerous occasions tied the hands of the police by telling them to stand down in these confrontations. He is complicit in Antifa’s activities because he supports their political agenda. It’s a truly shocking state of affairs.

Using violence, aiming to humiliate your opponent, is childish. An argument "won" that way only silences your opponent.

@Jillyhilly , "antifa" is a US discussion filled with barbed commentary. Political violence is foul. But in the UK we have other shit going on.

Jillyhilly I have a close friend who lives in Portland and she has no sense of the antifa running the city at all..

Multiple large, masked, white men beating up a small, gay, second-generation Vietnamese immigrant in a violent attempt to combat white supremacy

That's Antifa for you.

Jilly. your nonsense is a stupid as those who think that half of England is ruled by Sharia law.
Try harder next time.

Have we been invaded by a Russian troll farm? Antifa running Portland? Batshit, absolutely batshit.

I had a cup of tea one day. By the end of the week I was drinking a bottle of vodka a day. That's how much sense your OP makes. Right wing propaganda. Drivel.

The OP is not exactly logical.
But anyway: milkshaking is wrong, what happened to Andy Ngo is disgusting, lots of Antifa are in it for the ruck, not the politics I think. Same way lots of football hooligans don’t give a stuff about the team they are supposedly representing.

I also despaired when Richard Spencer was punched and half the internet agreed it was ok to hit Nazis.

Be nice if extreme right-wingers would reciprocate and agree that yes, Black Lives Matter.

That poor old man was seen (and phootographed) shouting about jews and 'queers', chasing people with a police baton.

And lets not call these far right idiots out to cause trouble 'journalists' please. He isnt.

The truth about the far right and the people OP supports in Portland, including the nazi who murdered two people defending two black women against his racist ranting, The portland based Patriot Prayer group and Portland affiliated Proud Boys. See also local groups of Volksfront.Traditionalist worker party and Identity Evropa.

You still havnt told me if you think the international Brigades in Spain and socialists in munich fighting nazis were wrong to?

truthout.org/articles/far-right-group-patriot-prayer-is-declining-thank-anti-fascists/

I’m left leaning and could fully sympathise with the desire to ‘milkshake’ in the U.K. examples. However I don’t agree with doing it. For the reason that it does become a slippery slope as far as what you can get away with doing to someone you deeply and passionately disagree with. I’m also against capital punishment.

Still, I do think that punishment needs to reflect the crime. Clearly concrete milkshake is a very, very different level of harm to an ordinary one.

I hate the use of violence, on either side of the political debate. Extremists of both the right and left begin to look fairly similar when they go too far.

Milkshakes, I can't get worked up about. Violence I can.

The problem is, that real fascists are not interested in having their minds changed via polite discourse. They are incredibly dangerous and are not open to debate. As Trump's presidency shows, fascists have zero respect for the rule of law or the proper channels for doing things.

So whilst I don't condone violence, I think throwing a milkshake, whilst childish, does prevent fascists from spreading their bile. Farage refused to get off his bus once he had been milkshaked, so didn't get to spout his hatred in my home town. A good result.

However, if anyone attacked Farage and caused him actual harm, that would cross the line.

Oh, and if some right winged people wanted to chuck milkshake over the Antifa idiots, I wouldn't blame them either. Cant have it only one way.

re USA far right vs left:

Terrorist Murders are overwhelmingly committed by the far right

e.g. a white nationalist in a car deliberately killing a woman demonstrator at Charlottsville, the mass murders of black people by rightwing shooters

I disapprove of milkshaking UK fascists, but here too,
it is the far right who have murdered an MP, murdered a worshipper outside a mosque

New Zealand too: it is the far right murdering people,
e.g. several people at a mosue

Whatever Ngo is or isnt, he's $100k better off thanks to go fund me helping him out. Not bad for a day's whinging. Nice work sympathisers..

The bleed on the brain stuff is also bullshit. Its just relentless

Where do you get your information from?

Sometimes people have to fight physically for a cause, but not against non-combatants.

I'm struggling to see the left-wing cause that is benefitted by beating up journalists and old men, even if the victims are unpleasant.

He was out of hospital within a few hours, having casually wandered in long after the 'attack'.

You're seriously taling about this 'old man'?

OK, there were both nasty horrible people, if you say so, but I still don't see the benefit for anyone or any cause in physically attacking them.

The 'old man' was apparently chasing a gay man. Given that he had a weapon, I imagine with the intention of committing a hate crime. I'm glad there were people there who stepped in - they may have gone over the top but zero sympathy for the 'victim'.

It also fits in with accounts of witnesses at previous protests, including a Pastor who thanked Antifa for saving his life from far-right thugs - m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/16/1690519/-Rev-Seth-Wispelwey-I-am-a-pastor-in-Charlottesville-and-antifa-saved-my-life-twice-on-Saturday

If the Ngo attack occurred was as reported, that's a different matter and is incredibly unhelpful. As we can see from this thread, when right wing protestors try to attack someone, and in turn get beaten up, they will try to use it as propaganda; lying to say they were attacked for their political views. In the Ngo instance, that may well have actually been the case.