A collaboration between Lewis McLain & AI

Introduction

The word “Antifa” has become one of the most polarizing terms in American politics. For some, it calls to mind images of masked demonstrators confronting police or smashing windows. For others, it represents grassroots resistance to racism and authoritarianism – or the perception of them. Making sense of Antifa requires more than soundbites. We must sift historical facts from rumors, distinguish lawful dissent from criminal acts, and weigh psychology alongside law. Above all, as Christian conservatives, we must seek truth, reject hysteria, and offer a constructive path forward that upholds both justice and peace.

---

What Fascism Is — and Why Comparisons Matter

To understand Antifa’s self-description, we must first clarify what fascism means. A standard dictionary definition describes fascism as “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Historically, fascism referred to the regimes of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany, both of which combined dictatorship, militarism, racism, and brutal suppression of dissent. It is essential to emphasize that America today is not Nazi Germany. However divided our politics, we continue to function under constitutional law, contested elections, and protected civil liberties. Modern Antifa rhetoric often invokes “fascism” as if it were at the doorstep, but this comparison is disproportionate. Real fascism was a genocidal system, not the messy disagreements of a pluralistic democracy.

---

What Fascists and Nazis Actually Did in the 1930s

When modern groups invoke the language of “fascism,” we must remember what it actually meant in the 1930s. The brutality was not rhetorical, not symbolic — it was physical, bloody, and state-organized.

Nazi Germany

• Opening of Dachau (1933): Within weeks of seizing power, the Nazis established Dachau, the first concentration camp. Communists, Social Democrats, and union leaders were dragged off the streets, beaten with rifle butts, lashed until skin tore, and thrown into barracks with little food. Many prisoners were executed or worked to death. Torture was routine: prisoners hung by their wrists until shoulders dislocated, starved until skeletal, or shot during “escape attempts” staged by guards.
  
• The Night of the Long Knives (June 30–July 2, 1934): Hitler unleashed the SS against his rivals, especially leaders of the SA stormtroopers. Men were dragged from their beds in the night, pistol-whipped, and shot at close range. Some were stabbed repeatedly with bayonets before being dumped in shallow graves. Estimates of the dead range from 85 to over 400. Blood soaked the floor of Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. Hitler had ordered it personally, and it showed the German people that dissent could be answered with murder.
  
• Kristallnacht (November 9–10, 1938): This pogrom was a nationwide orgy of violence against Jews. Synagogues burned with Torah scrolls thrown into the flames. Jewish shopkeepers were clubbed unconscious in front of their shattered storefronts; children were beaten with fists and boots in the streets. At least 100 were killed outright in the chaos. Thousands more were rounded up, battered with rifle butts, and shipped to camps like Dachau and Buchenwald, where many perished from beatings, exposure, or starvation. Broken glass glittered across Germany — not just from windows but from the teeth of victims smashed against the pavement.
  
• Sterilizations and Killings of the Disabled (1933–1939): Under the “Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring,” over 300,000 Germans were forcibly sterilized. The operations were often botched, leaving women torn and bleeding or men maimed and in chronic pain. By 1939, the Nazis escalated into the T4 “euthanasia” program, luring parents to hand over disabled children “for care.” Instead, they were strapped to gurneys and given lethal injections, or starved until they died in agony. Witnesses reported piles of tiny corpses waiting for cremation. Adults with disabilities were herded into sealed rooms and gassed with carbon monoxide — the test runs for the death camps to come.

Fascist Italy

• Blackshirt Violence: Mussolini’s paramilitary “squadristi” terrorized opponents throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. Their signature humiliation was forcing enemies to drink castor oil mixed with gasoline — inducing vomiting, diarrhea, internal bleeding, and sometimes death. Opponents were stripped, beaten with truncheons until bones cracked, and left crippled in ditches.
  
• Assassination of Giacomo Matteotti (1924, still emblematic in the 1930s): Matteotti, a socialist MP, was kidnapped, stabbed multiple times with daggers, and left in a shallow grave for daring to denounce fascist violence. His murder warned every Italian that opposition could be met with knives and silence.
  
• Colonial Atrocities in Ethiopia (1935–1936): Fascist Italy’s invasion brought barbarity to Africa. Italian planes dropped mustard gas on soldiers and civilians alike. Victims stumbled blind and blistered, skin sloughing off, lungs burning until they drowned in their own blood. Priests were shot for preaching resistance. Entire villages were machine-gunned. Ethiopian resistance fighters were captured, beaten, and hanged in public squares as warnings. Tens of thousands died under chemical clouds and fascist bullets.

Why This Matters

By the end of the 1930s, before the Second World War fully erupted, fascism had already left a trail of maiming, sterilization, torture, and outright mass murder. This was not merely heated rhetoric or “culture war.” It was broken bodies, charred synagogues, and children starved to death in hospitals.

That history underscores why comparisons today must be careful. However divided our politics, America in the 2020s is not Germany or Italy in the 1930s. When Christians and conservatives hear the word “fascism” hurled about, we must remember what it really meant: not simply political disagreement, but a system of organized, state-directed brutality that bathed whole nations in blood.

---

Historical Roots of Antifa

The term Antifa traces to interwar Germany. In 1932, the Communist Party launched Antifaschistische Aktion, with its now-famous twin-flag emblem. Around the same time, the Social Democratic coalition known as the Iron Front popularized the Three Arrows symbol, designed to overpaint swastikas in public spaces. Both movements were born in a desperate climate: the Weimar Republic was collapsing, and Nazi power was rising fast.

Modern activists adopt these symbols to claim continuity with that resistance. Yet the comparison is strained. Antifa of the 1930s fought fascism seizing state power; today’s Antifa is a marginal protest current within a functioning democracy. The symbolism is potent, but the contexts are not equivalent.

---

What Antifa Is Today

Contemporary Antifa in the United States is not a centralized organization but a loose network of activists and affinity groups. There is no national leadership, no membership rolls, and no dues. Small collectives in various cities operate independently, sometimes sharing tactics but rarely coordinating beyond local networks.

Antifa is also reactive, not proactive. Its activity spikes in moments of confrontation. Sometimes this means mobilizing far-right (real or perceived) groups that attempt rallies or demonstrations. However, just as often in recent years, Antifa has directed its energy toward law enforcement agencies as they carry out their duties. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities have been frequent targets, with protesters hurling objects at officers or vandalizing property under the banner of opposing “fascism.” Unfortunately, the “resistance” has escalated to shootings at ICE officials. Police departments in cities like Portland have faced recurring clashes, as Antifa-affiliated demonstrators portray officers as instruments of authoritarian repression. In these settings, the men and women attacked were not extremists but sworn officers enforcing democratically enacted laws.

Some Antifa activists focus on research and exposure of extremist networks; others on mutual aid or community defense. A smaller subset embraces direct confrontation, which can escalate into vandalism, assaults, or clashes with police. For conservatives, the key is not to overstate Antifa’s size or permanence—it is not an underground army. But it is equally important not to understate its disruptions or the fact that many of its battles are now with the very agencies tasked with keeping civic order.

---

Mob Mentality and Crowd Psychology

Crowd psychology explains why protests sometimes spiral out of control.

When individuals mask their faces and merge into a bloc, they experience deindividuation, lowering inhibitions and accountability. Emotions spread quickly through crowds; emotional contagion turns fear into panic and anger into rage. Groups often become more extreme than their average member, a phenomenon called group polarization.

This is not unique to Antifa. The same dynamics are visible in right-wing rallies, sports riots, or even church history when mobs gathered in anger. But in Antifa’s case, these dynamics reinforce a confrontational image: groups that see themselves as defensive often look aggressive once mob psychology takes hold. The line between legal protests and illegal brutality is razor thin.

---

Rumors of Funding and Paid Agitators

One of the most persistent claims is that Antifa is secretly bankrolled by billionaires, most often George Soros. Fact-checkers consistently find no evidence of Soros—or his Open Society Foundations (OSF)—directly funding Antifa groups or paying masked demonstrators. No checks to “Antifa” exist in the public record.

But critics rightly frame the suspicion differently: “It is not Soros directly, but his nonprofits.” This is the logical pathway if such funding were to exist—through NGOs and nonprofit grant networks. OSF is among the largest in the world, distributing billions to civil-society organizations that support democracy, minority rights, bail funds, and advocacy. These grants are transparent and traceable. But once money flows into NGOs, subgrants, or affiliated nonprofits, it becomes more difficult to track how funds are used locally.

This is why congressional inquiries and watchdog groups sometimes investigate: to test whether nonprofit dollars intended for civil-rights work might be diverted to militant activity. So far, documentation shows adjacency, not intent—support for nonprofits that operate in the same ecosystem as protest movements, but no proof of deliberate financing of Antifa violence.

The rumor persists because it is plausible in theory and because real-world practices—like bail funds, mutual aid networks, and protest logistics—often do receive nonprofit money. But proximity is not proof. Without intent and direction, suspicion remains speculation, even though evidence may be forthcoming as investigations continue. The most accurate statement today is this: Soros’s foundations fund civil-society organizations, not masked street fighters directly. Again, investigators continue to test whether NGO pathways could ever blur that line.

---

Documented Cases of Gear Distribution

While grand funding conspiracies remain unproven, there are documented cases of organized gear distribution.

In Los Angeles, June 2025, television cameras filmed a pickup truck unloading boxes of “Bionic Shield” face shields to protesters. Federal prosecutors indicted Alejandro Orellana, alleging he conspired to aid and abet civil disorder by distributing equipment after an unlawful assembly was declared. Defense lawyers countered that the gear was protective, not offensive. Local news footage confirmed masked individuals handing out riot shields and gas masks, while national outlets like Newsweek and New York Post reported the same incident.

These events prove that gear drops do occur and sometimes lead to charges under civil disorder laws. But they remain localized and small-scale. They do not prove a vast, centrally funded operation. They illustrate how local actors can escalate protest dynamics, sometimes blurring lawful protection with unlawful facilitation of unrest.

---

What the Law Says

American law distinguishes between lawful support and criminal incitement.

The Anti-Riot Act (18 U.S.C. §2101) makes it a crime to use interstate travel or facilities with intent to incite or promote a riot. The Civil Disorder statute (18 U.S.C. §231) penalizes acts that interfere with law enforcement during unrest. Conspiracy and aiding-and-abetting charges apply when someone provides gear or funding with intent to support violence.

The dividing line is intent. Providing food, water, or legal aid is lawful. Providing protective gear is gray, depending on timing and purpose. Paying people to commit violence is clearly illegal. Prosecutors must prove intent, not mere association. That distinction is central to a Christian-conservative view of justice: fairness requires evidence, not guilt by rumor.

---

Where This Leads

The trajectory of Antifa is not toward permanent institutions but diffusion. Its brand may fade, while its tactics—counter-mobilizations, black bloc, research collectives—are absorbed into broader activist culture. Violent flare-ups will recur when extremist groups mobilize, because Antifa is reactive. Rumors of billionaire funding will persist because they are politically useful and superficially plausible. But the enduring challenge is mob mentality, which can transform protests—left or right—into destructive crowds.

---

A Christian-Conservative Response

For Christians and conservatives, a balanced response requires moral clarity and careful restraint.

We must insist on truth over rumor. Repeating unproven funding myths undermines credibility. We must support and uphold the rule of law: prosecuting crimes firmly, but not criminalizing dissent. We must care for communities harmed by violence, providing aid and pastoral care. We must strengthen civic institutions, so extremism finds less fertile ground. And we must model discernment and peace. The Apostle Paul told us to “test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). In a culture awash with rumor, that admonition is urgently needed.

---

Conclusion

Antifa is not a monolithic army but a loose collection of activists and tactics. Its roots lie in the desperate resistance to 1930s fascism, but America today is not Nazi Germany. Rumors of billionaire funding circulate widely, and while NGOs are the logical pathway for covert financing, the evidence so far suggests proximity, rather than proof. Proof could be forthcoming as investigations continue. Documented cases—such as the Los Angeles gear drop—demonstrate a real escalation but remain local and situational.

The Christian-conservative response must be balanced: uphold law with fairness, refuse exaggeration, care for the wounded, and protect civil society. We should not minimize the harm Antifa can cause, nor should we inflate it into a phantom army. Instead, we must respond with truth, order, compassion, and faith in Christ, who remains the Prince of Peace.