How the Proud Boys invented antifa

[marmar]

How the Proud Boys invented antifa
The far-right gang has been fully absorbed by Trump's White House

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published October 22, 2025 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) The first thing to understand about antifa is that it is not real. Yes, as a journalist, I’m obligated to offer some throat-clearing nuance: There is a thing called antifa that has existed for a long time, in the sense that there have long been leftists who fight fascism with tactics like outing, public shaming and a very occasional fist to the Nazi nose. But antifa, at least as imagined by President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters, simply does not exist.

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MAGA’s imaginary version of antifa is no different than past urban legends about demonic possession and QAnon’s claims that Oscar winner Tom Hanks eats children’s brains. But this false conflation between individuals throughout history resisting fascism and “terrorism” is a deliberate attempt to confuse, just like Trump’s ridiculous roundtable on antifa earlier this month. Conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, one of the attendees, insisted that “antifa is real” and there were “various iterations” that go “back to Weimar Republic in Germany.”

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It’s not an accident that Trump has settled on Portland, Oregon, to stage his real war on the imaginary antifa. As I reported for Salon in 2017, the city was heavily targeted by the Proud Boys and other far-right gangs from the early months of Trump’s first administration. They trawled the streets of Portland, Berkeley and other northwestern cities that were seen as progressive strongholds, bearing weapons, harassing residents and otherwise creating a spectacle of violence and chaos. The goal was not subtle: They aimed to be so annoying or threatening that locals would lash out at them. Even the slightest touch from a resident was construed as an “attack” that was then used to justify street brawls under the ludicrous pretense of self-defense.

The communities picked for this abuse were chosen for demographic reasons. The Proud Boys needed cities with large populations of young, white men from comfortable backgrounds but with leftist politics. Most men of that profile aren’t interested in getting into fights. But just enough of them do get caught up in masculinist violent fantasies — and are privileged enough to not worry about the consequences — to be interested in throwing punches with fascists. The Proud Boys only needed a handful of 20-year-olds with bandanas and Che Guevara shirts to create chaotic images for iPhone cameras that were disseminated on social media as “proof” that antifa was real. .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/10/22/how-the-proud-boys-invented-antifa/