Polemics after the Harpers Letter

The military-industrial complex of the country that takes the entire world hostage hint, this does not refer to Iran has also recently signed up to the polemical culture wars, joining themedia and cultural establishment.

In anannual defence billof$740 billion inmilitaryfundingfor the 2021 fiscal year, the US included one important caveat, predictably protested from the pulpit of the Trump entourage: military bases named after Confederates must undergo a name-change.

Iraq-invader David Petraeus had, after all, longpointed outthe absurdity of bases named after Confederates. Such gestural politics havehad theirripple effectsin Europe.

Signs indicate that thewar-machine is playing catch-up with the art world and with journalism (of the variety that Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald derisively calls Resistance journalism).

The renaming of military bases spread over the planet, pays tribute, for example, toHBOstemporary deletionof the1939historic film Gone with the Windand otherelite rites of atonement such asthe ban on thephrase master bedroom byreal-estate dealers. Rehabilitation of the very weapons of state violence by simply removing Confederate names, only adds to thegrotesqueness of the state-sponsored violence which sparked the protests.

Stuntsshould not distract from the danger of militarised police, who for example arrestedblack CNN journalist OmarGimenez on camera, as he covered the Minneapolisriots.

While hotly debated, many in DiEM25 already acknowledge the gravity of the situation that made a seemingly innocuous statement like Harpers LetterOn Justice and Open Debate necessity. They include professor Noam Chomsky (who proudly forms part of DiEM25s Advisory Panel). His signature joins that of exiled Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud, among a host of other fellow travellers on the left as well as our adversaries in the extreme center.

This happened shortly after UCLA authorities placed a researcher under investigation for allegedly undermining the movement after he readMartin Luther Kings Letter from a Birmingham jail. Such reactionary instances of censorship are now affecting journalism, and not only the usual suspects in academia.

Investigative journalist Lee Fang, for example, recently faced accusations from his mostly-white colleagues at The Intercept, who campaign online to have Fang firedbecause he retweeted this interview of Max, a black BLM supporter at a protest, who said I always question, why does a black life matter only when a white man takes it? If a white man takes my life tonight, its national news, but if a black man takes my life, it might not even be spoken of .

Fangs interviewee perhaps calls for a radical next-step: towards a socio-economic understanding of racism, and an end to the worlds indifference towards the circumstances of many or most black people. Maxs understanding should resonate in Europe as well would white Europeans so casually dismiss the results of Europes unbridled trade of weapons in Africa, were it not for post-colonial indifference at the non-news of one African killing another?

At The Intercept, however, Fangs co-workers reached the opposite interpretation American journalist Matt Taibbi reports campaigns involving HR going after Fang, on a mission to have him sacked for having undermined the BLM movement.

New paradigms, new understandings of the other, and new cultural forms can only be attained by exchange and discussions without penalties for wrong opinions and never by inquisitions or exorcisms. We see an important difference between the just struggle to transform the way the police receive financing, and to reverse the militarisation of police in the Western World, from the United States to Latin America to France.

But protesters who toppled statues of anti-slavery abolitionists likeUlysses Grant,or Victor Shoechler in Martinique,and even statues ofGandhi like those who lobby behind Democratic politicians to remove a Lincoln Emancipation Memorial in Washington DC, like those who attacked images of the former slave and anti-authoritarian Miguel de Cervantes, all participate in rites of exorcism, rather than in forces of lasting political change.

Historical-revisionists today struggle to scrub and comb the past clean of its demons, by removing sculptures, or in the older campaign to destroy murals by the artistVictor Arnautoff a committed socialist and apprentice of Mexican painter Diego Riviera in San Francisco; as others typically cheerlead theremoval of paintings of female nudes from museumsor even the removal of a mildly erotic Bolivian poem from a muralin Berlin.

Those who lobby to delete words from the dictionary, and to neuter and destroy the grammar of Latin languages because of the inherent sexism of Spanish cannot understand why progressive Elizabeth Warren lost popularity amongthe Latino voters whom she addressed as LatinX.

Among many perceptions shared between centre-right and fashionable progressive pundits, we see a prevalent notion that riots in the US erupted from a socio-economic vacuum, and had nothing to do with the absence of an emergency system of provisions to help populations weather a mass-quarantine and epidemic shutdown of economies. Hunger and despair, caused by life in limbo under an oddly managed quarantine, lacked channels of support and basic aid let alone a Universal Basic Dividend during the emergency.

Inevitably, predictably, in a time of forced unemployment and shutdown, bread riots broke out. Leftist broadcaster Michael Brooks, who left us too soon this July, aptly observed that while anger at police murderousness and discrimination sparked the riots in the US today, in a less formal way these arethe first bread-riots of the Trump era.

DiEM25 believes in a common political project of economic transformation to permanently exit the current economic and ecological crises to be achieved not only through a Green New Deal for Europe, but also by shutting down the war-machine.

Todays progressive elitescapitalise on clichd relics of thethen-transgressiveachievements of the late 1960s counter-cultural revolution, contemporaneouslyreduced to background music for advertising and hip liberal anti-Russia activism.

In the 1960s, a greatly diverse range of Western social movements, with contrasting and conflicting visions of life and expression, during their most successful moments shared certain unifying common goals: to stop the Vietnam war, towards the utopian goal of ending militarism, poverty and imperialism.In these latter, essential projects, manyanti-war religious conservativesalso joined forces, despite having a radically different vision of life to hedonist students or black revolutionaries.

By contrast, present-day 21st century tribal rivalries in what was once the left,owe mostly to the abandonment of any common project, let alone the combined goals of anti-imperialism, anti-war and economic transformation. All of this, we must now recover.

As the ancient Greekphilosopher Zeno rumoured to have beenone of the first anarchists believed, everything heterogenous (diversity) can only exist thanks to a basein shared qualities, just as the branches of a tree sprawloutward in different directions. Difference within the left can exist in concert and effectively, provided we share a common basic project underlying it all.

Arturo Desimone is an Aruban-Argentinean writer and visual artist, currently based between Argentina and the Netherlands (www.arturoblogito.wordpress.com). Hes also member of DiEM25sThematic group on Peace and International Policy.

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Against de-platforming and other stunts - DiEM25

Are you going to E-Viction on Friday? If you want to see the virtual show, then youre going to have to make time for it. It only runs for 12 hours, 12pm ET to 12am ET, and then it disappears like it was never there in the first place.

What a familiar feeling.

My friend once compared using sites as a sex worker to a game of whack-a-mole: A new platform appears, sex workers and adult creators come in, we make it popular, then the executives up top gradually cull us while trading our hard work for civilians (or non-sex workers). Once were kicked off, were forced to find a new platform, and the process starts all over again.

Tumblr is a case study in deplatforming sex workers and throwing safety nets to the wind. Due to the sites popularity among millennials, its NSFW ban was of the biggest vectors for bringing sex workers rights into the mainstream among teens and 20-somethings. But deplatforming is a history that goes far beyond Tumblror SESTA-FOSTA, for that matter. For sex workers, its like a bar being burned down. Sure, we can archive the net on the Internet Wayback Machine, but we cant archive the sense of community that came with it.

Thus, the idea behind E-Viction: Sex workers agree to deplatform and censor themselves en masse as a sort of consensual, nonconsent role-play. Its just as much an invitation to build a sex worker-centered community as it is performance art about doing online sex work.

Youre probably familiar with gentrification. The Urban Displacement Project describes it as a process of neighborhood change that includes economic change in a historically disinvested neighborhood along with demographic changes not only in terms of income level, but also in terms of changes in the education level or racial make-up of residents.

When we talk about gentrification in the U.S., we usually use the term specifically in reference to the gentrification of Black and brown urban communities by white transplants. Brooklyn, New York, is perhaps the poster child for gentrification in the 21st century: White, middle- and upper-class suburbanites settle into the boroughs predominantly Black communities and bring their taste for whiteness with them.

But gentrification is about community space, not just real estate, and so gentrification also happens outside of apartment buildings and grocery stores. One of the most important non-real estate forms of gentrification today is digital gentrification, a term E-Victions art collective Veil Machine uses to describe its events commentary.

E-Viction is a self-destructing platform where sex workers and artists create intimate encounters and exchanges to imagine a world beyond SESTA/FOSTA [] before dramatizing the otherwise invisible censorship of sex workers by self-destructing, the collective writes in a press release. E-Viction is a direct response to our urgent need for a digital public sphere and the challenges of sex worker survival in COVID-19.

Like its offline counterpart, digital gentrification targets the most marginalized communities and cannibalizes their spaces. Online, thats sex workers, particularly queer and trans sex workers of color. Many of E-Victions performers are queer, trans people of color themselves. Black and brown marginalized gendersparticularly Black and brown women, femmes, and trans peoplehave always been at the forefront of sex work, violence, and movements toward Black, trans, and gay/queer liberation, Veil Machine member, E-Viction performer, and sex worker cherubirl told the Daily Dot.

The majority of our performers are sex workers who work as kink professionals, full-service workers, cam performers, strippers, sugar babies, porn producers, and full body sensual masseuses, to name a few, cherubirl said. Over half our members identify as people of color, a third are nonbinary and/or trans, and almost all are identified or socialized as queer. Not everyone is in the business of exploiting their identity or oppression in their sex work or artmaking [] but our [artwork] speaks to nuance and inspires dialogue beyond identity politics into the nitty-gritty of what sex workers have always grappled with.

In offline gentrification, the first wave of gentrifiers are generally oppressed in some ways while having privilege in others. Historically, this happened in the gayborhood, where white gays would create predominantly white enclaves at the expense of residents of color. Public sexwhich once flourished in the Greenwich Village gayborhoodbecame a vector for the New York City government to target gay men by blaming them for the AIDS crisis, which sparked a moral panic that tore the gay community in half. Some queer men saw this as a sign that they could never again trust the state. Others began licking its boots. As the latter gained social (and financial) capital, their neighborhoods became more and more gentrified over time.

That legacy continues today. After the AIDS Crisis, gay West Village residents increasingly encouraged the New York Police Department to police its streets, if not did the policing themselves. Ironically, the same gays who had bathroom sex and pier hookups during the 70s and 80s now call the cops on the trans people of color and sex workers hanging around in their community.

As queer theorist Benjamin Joseph Nobile Kampler argues, the mainstream gay rights movement has conceded to an imagined homogeneous white, heterosexual, middle-class entity, the Public. Because the mainstream gay rights movement believes it must alter gay people, cultures, and sexual practices into a form of homonormativity that mirrors the imagined Public, the LGBT community (emphasis on only four letters) began self-regulating itself to meet the Publics needs. In other words, gay hustlers were sacrificed for Pete Buttigieg.

The assumption that sex is unethical was solidified in the minds of the Public as well as state officials and became increasingly solidified in the minds of queers, particularly gay men, Kampler writes. The best way to fight the spread of HIV, it seemed, was to try to conform to the ideals of the Public. The states attempts at bathhouse closures can be understood as an attempt to infuse gay male life with heteronormative values; for the U.S. government, stopping the spread of HIV amongst gay men meant forcing them into homonormativity.

Digital gentrification is complicated because there are no apartment buildings, no mom-and-pop businesses, no block party spaces stalked by squad cars to document. There is an ocean of information involved in an online communitys history, and becoming a digital historian requires a level of online prowess that isnt quite the same as simply showing up to an intersection and recording. This makes it harder for online activists and organizers to not just document but also break down fascism.

When Tumblr announced its NSFW ban, some civilian LGBT users defended the move by claiming sex workers and adult creators needed to be sacrificed to stop rampant problems with child pornography on the site. Just as the West Villages residents demanded the police arrest transgender sex workers because they felt their safety was at risk, assimilationist LGBT users defended Tumblrs whorephobic policy as a lesser of two evils.

Make no mistakealgorithms that claim to be designed to protect against child trafficking are really just sanitizing measures to keep your timelines respectable, cherubirl said. One of the reasons that celebrities and non-sex worker OnlyFans users have not been kicked off is precisely because they, unlike us, dont pose a threat. This is why, like one of our members Shayla likes to say, Our very existence is resistance.'

Given purity politics and internalized shame enable the sort of online censorship that E-Viction is trying to resist, Veil Machine turns the issue on its head in the way sex workers know best: a power play. Instead of letting big tech decide when sex workers can speak and how, E-Viction calls the shots. You can watch, you can buy services, you can talk about sex workers rights, and you can pay for all sorts of erotic labor. But when midnight strikes, its done. The move lets attendees enjoy sex workers hard work while also mirroring that restless feeling of dormant emergency in the online sex trade. Even though you know when the show will end, theres never really enough time to enjoy it. If only it didnt have to come to a halt.

I think gentrification in the virtual realm boils down to this: Who is the internet for and what is the internet for? cherubirl said. Massive corporations like Facebook (owner of Instagram) and Google privatize the internet and are therefore the digital parallel of real estate developers, exacting inordinate control over the places that people consider home. Many corporations have depended on the support of the sex working community to developsee OnlyFans, Tumblr, CashAppand then toss us out as soon as they no longer need us. As in the case of its flesh world counterpart, the logic of gentrification has an aesthetic.

Exposing this aesthetic, and then breaking it, is direct action. It exposes the audience to the reality of the internet. Sex workers, particularly queer and trans sex workers of color, are the engine behind popular online culture, but big tech curates how and when they get to speak. Instead, E-Viction lets these trans and queer Black and brown sex workers lead the discourse.

It is without a doubt an issue in both the digital world and flesh world that Black sex workers and sex workers of color are statistically more often banned, deplatformed, and censored online, cherubirl said. Sex workers of color are shadowbanned and censored at alarmingly high rates which has an immediate impact on our ability to earn an income, make rent, and meet our basic living needs [] the gatekeepers of resources and the oppressive systems that exist in the flesh world/IRL has a very similar effect to the virtual world, silencing and erasing BIPOC sex workers everywhere.

Inside every story about gentrification is a story of loss. For New York sex workers, thats Times Square, the red light district-turned corporate America tourist trap. Today, Times Squares history as a sex worker hot spot is lost on most New Yorkers under 30, but writers and artists are making sure its legacy wouldnt pass away when its porn theaters closed shop. Times Square Red, Times Square Blue by Samuel Delaney unravels everything from public sex during adult flicks to the hustlers and gay men that hung out in midtown before Disney (and, more specifically, the NYPD) pushed them out.

E-Viction is like the 21st-century version of Delaneys walk through Times Square. Its a microcosm of what once was and what we could lose as technological whorephobia continues to grow. But its just as much a warning as it is an invitation for change. For the civilians who enjoy E-Victed and want it to go on forever, well, the power is in their hands to make that a reality. So what are they waiting for? This show is interactive.

Youre going to censor us? Well make that a seductive mystery. Youre going to kick us off your platforms? Well make our own. Youre going to shut us down? Well turn our inevitable defeat into a spectacle not to be missed, Veil Machines Sybil Fury told the Daily DOt. Just showing up to work as a sex worker is resisting digital gentrification, and as such, weve been at the front lines of this fight for decades. Its time to pay attention to the everyday forms of resistance weve been using, and ask us how we can develop those tactics into bold, widespread strategies for change.

Veil Machines E-Viction goes live on Friday, Aug. 21, from 11am CT to 11pm CT. RSVP on Eventbrite to attend.

Facing social media crackdowns amid the pandemic, sex workers worry for their futures

E-Viction sex work event sheds light on digital gentrification

This Trumpworld operative obsessed with Kamala Harris background has a past he doesnt want you to see

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E-Viction sex work event sheds light on digital gentrification by self-destructing when its over - The Daily Dot

When a plethora of anti-identity-politics satire accounts are taken down within days of each other, can it really be chalked up to a mistake? Throughout the past few days, Twitter has taken down several accounts that tend to mock the oppressiveness of woke culture by pretending to espouse extreme versions of leftist ideology.

Among the purge was the Babylon Bee, a Christian satire site that often mocks leftist politicians and the woke mob. Their account was reinstated within hours. Twitter claimed the Bee was inadvertently caught in a spam filter, and that their temporary takedown had nothing to do with politics. However, the timing of the Bees suspension is absurdly suspicious.

This is far from the first time the Babylon Bee has been targeted by online censors. Last year, they went up against the fact-checking site Snopes.com, who attempted to label the site as misinformation and accused them of spreading lies, missing the point of satire completely. While a fact-checking site would normally not cause too much worry, Snopes was partnered with Facebook, so their label of fake news can prevent content from being seen and could lead to deplatforming from a huge avenue for reaching audiences.

Among the crowd of anti-woke satirists whose accounts were restricted is Titania McGrath, whose removal last week kicked off the purge. The account poses as a mildly exaggerated version of a woke white woman. Her faux outrage over seemingly innocuous topics has an unsettling yet humorous tendency to predict where the mob will travel next. She has regularly been restricted by Twitter for comments that are suspiciously similar to fully serious posts by the more aggressive members of the online leftist mob.

Her creator, Andrew Doyle, has kept fans updated throughout the restriction, while also calling attention to the plethora of other accounts that were not only restricted but suspended, which means not only can the person not tweet, but no one can see any of the persons old content until the ban is lifted.

Titania McGrath was reinstated yesterday evening, but many other satire accounts are still removed, with no news when or if theyll be allowed back on Twitter. Titania was banned for a thread criticizing medicine and science as oppressive, a clear parody of both the idea that science is sexist and racist and the recent trend of opinion pieces claiming some popular thing is horribly offensive due to tenuous logic and loosely related ideas.

Its disappointing to see accounts mocking the insanity of current times be banned when accounts parroting the same ideas earnestly are given free rein. The double standard applied when you go up against the woke mob is frightening and apparent.

Paulina Enck is an intern at the Federalist and current student at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service. Follow her on Twitter at @itspaulinaenck

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Twitter Bans Babylon Bee, Then Claims It Was An Innocent Mistake - The Federalist

Britains universities are in an appalling state and by no means all of it is the fault of Covid or Ofqual. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, 13 universities face a very real prospect of insolvency as a result of the coronavirus crisis, unless they receive a government (i.e. taxpayer) bailout. The least prestigious universities are at greatest risk. But when will somebody, confronted with these naked emperors, dare to ask the obvious question: why should we bail them out?

It is understandable that universities, in the face of the pandemic and closure of studies, have been financially damaged by a slump in international student enrolments, loss of income from other campus activities such as conferences, losses on their investment portfolios and the continuing need to meet pension obligations. The reality, though, is that this crisis has simply halted them in a career that was already self-destructive and also harmful to society.

The first problem is one of scale. Does a country the size of Britain really need 130 universities, plus 35 similar establishments classed as institutions of Higher Education? Does it make sense that our universities, supposedly establishments catering for the most gifted, currently house 2.3 million students? This is a consequence of decades of politicising higher education, treating it as just another vote-winning amenity on the road to embourgeoisement, like owning a car or graduating to a foreign holiday.

Far too many people are going to university the target of 50 per cent of youngsters set by Tony Blair was passed last year rendering the experience meaningless. In 1994 a total of 271,000 applicants were admitted to UK universities; by 2019 the figure had doubled to 541,000. No wonder we have a drop-out rate of 6.3 per cent, representing a scandalous waste of time and resources. The drop-out rate at some institutions suggests utter incompetence in selecting undergraduates. At the University of Bedfordshire the drop-out rate is 15.2 per cent; at the University of Bolton it is 15.4 per cent; and at London Metropolitan University 18.6 per cent almost one in five students. If the question arose of bailing out any of those institutions, how could such indulgence be justified?

The curricula, too, in many cases, are a travesty. The high culture of the mediaevalstudium generalehas been debased to the point where university courses now embrace subjects such as media studies, counselling, fashion, hospitality leisure and tourism, youth work, floristry and, of course, gender studies. This lowering of the culture of academe has been necessitated by the admission of students lacking the capability to address a serious academic subject.

The objectives of universities today are to generate as much money as possible out of their sausage factories and to flatter the public with the delusion that society is becoming more intelligent, as a consequence of progress. To sustain this imposture, since it has, predictably, proved impossible to elevate the performance of unfit students, it has been necessary to lower the bar by a progressive (in every sense) inflation of grades. Over the same period that saw student intake double, from 1994 to 2019, the proportion of Firsts awarded to a demonstrably less intelligent undergraduate population has more than quadrupled, from 7 per cent to 29 per cent.

Considering the prestige that once attached to a First Class degree, even the initial level of 7 per cent represented undesirable grade inflation. Today, the proportion of students awarded a First or 2:1 has reached 79 per cent. Employers will rightly conclude a UK university degree is not worth the paper it is printed on, unless those employers are the BBC, the public sector or, most appropriately, one of our Potemkin universities. Academics who have protested against this degrading charade have been crushed by the self-interested university hierarchy.

This tragedy has been played out against the background of a Greek chorus of pompous dons droning on about our world-class universities. Yet again,la trahison des clercshas further contributed to the discrediting of another cohort of experts drawn from the elites. Of course there is still first-class research coming out of Oxford, Cambridge and other universities, in certain subjects and at certain levels: considering the resources commanded by them, both human and fiscal, it would be extraordinary if it produced no significant outcomes.

Those reassuring successes, however, like the crowded shop windows in 1960s East Berlin, are a mere facade concealing wider failure. Yet, although the whole climate of contemporary academe is on the cerebrally challenged side of the Left, that should not absolve the Right of its share of responsibility for the decline of universities. Even if one hugely admires Margaret Thatcher, it is not necessary to endorse her attitude to universities. Yes, there was some bumbling inefficiency among dons administering university affairs, but the solution was not to turn institutions of higher learning into business corporations.

Today, having originally embraced that corporate culture, to the detriment of scholarly ideals, universities have followed the same trajectory or, more accurately, pioneered it as their business counterparts: they have become woke corporations. In past centuries there was one forum in Europe, regardless of conditions elsewhere, in which free speech, civil exchange of ideas and lively debate ensured intellectual freedom and that was the university community. Today, in the whole of our society, there is no place where freedom of speech and thought are more violently repressed than in our universities.

Years ago, an American commentator described North American campuses as small, ivy-covered North Koreas. The same now applies to Britain. It is not just a case of scuffles in quadrangles: the totalitarian woke culture has devastated the academic curriculum. To take just one example, in 2018 Oxford Universitys philosophy department, in order to attract more women students, instructed its diversity and equality officer to compose a new reading list comprising 40 per cent female authors. Since the classical canon of philosophy was overwhelmingly male, serious philosophers had to be displaced to make way for unknown women.

How patronising it is for universities to assume women would rather read Angela Davis than Duns Scotus. How long can intellectual achievement survive in such a climate of enforced stultification? Violent de-platforming of speakers disapproved of by the campus nomenklatura, both staff and undergraduate, is training a new generation that will soon occupy influential positions in society that it is not only acceptable but morally imperative to silence the views of anyone with whom they disagree.

Campuses are now police states. Policy Exchange published a paper last year on Academic Freedom in the UK the mere necessity for such a study is a grave reproach to our society which revealed a climate of intimidation on campuses. Only 39 per cent of pro-Brexit students said they would be comfortable expressing that view in class. Strangely, the authors took comfort from the fact that a significant proportion of students are consistently supportive of academic freedom, estimated at 30 per cent to 50 per cent. Yet that means half or more reject academic freedom.

The report recommended that universities should adopt an academic freedom commitment such as the Chicago Principles and appoint an Academic Freedom Champion reporting to the vice-chancellor. The government should establish a statutory duty of non-discrimination for political and moral beliefs and extend statutory protection of free speech to student bodies.

The Adam Smith Institute has published research into left-liberal over-representation in British academia, showing that less than 12 per cent of academics support conservative parties, compared with at least 50 per cent of the public; in 1964, 35 per cent of academics voted Conservative. That illustrates the long march through the institutions by the Left.

There will never be a better opportunity than the post-Covid disarray among universities for a cull of our sink institutions. It is necessary on fiscal and academic grounds. We need a leaner, fitter academe, rather than the teeming spires of overcrowded campuses teaching junk subjects. We also need strong statutory intervention to force university authorities to protect freedom of speech, with punitive fines and, eventually, dismissal from post for persistently failing to do so. Attempted de-platforming should automatically incur being sent down from university.

While it is not practical or desirable to appoint academics along political lines, a code of conduct should impose a duty to refrain from political activity on campus and to teach and mark subjects objectively. But the worst problem of all, the most atrocious example of groupthink, is the public delusion that our world-leading universities are havens of academic distinction. The public must let the scales fall from its eyes and recognise that, of all the flawed institutions in our society, the universities are in the worst state of health.

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It's time to cull and reform our sham, woke universities - Reaction - Reaction

Sturgis, SD -(Ammoland.com)- When we heard that Antifa was planning to protest the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, we thought it was a joke, but the group did end up trying to protest the biker rally. They were unsuccessful by any metric.

Every year hundreds of thousands of bikers from all around the country descended on Sturgis, South Dakota, for the worlds largest and most famous motorcycle rally. Even in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, bikers made their yearly pilgrimage to the small town that becomes the mecca of the bike world. This year the bikers were joined by a small group of members of the anarcho-communist group known as Antifa.

Antifa decided to protest South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noems decision not to shut down the bike rally as they demanded. Antifa claims it wanted the rally shut down because of the novel coronavirus world pandemic. The group said the rally would increase the spread of the virus. Some of the bikers found the groups reason hypocritical since Antifa has been protesting by the side of Black Lives Matter around the country without regard to the pandemic.

Another reason the group gave for protesting the biker rally was that they were standing up against white supremacy and President Trump. The group believes that most bikers are Trump supporters. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally draws partygoers from all races and walks of life. Several predominantly Hispanic and Black motorcycle clubs attend the rally every year without fear of white supremacy. President Trump has never attended Sturgis or any other motorcycle rally.

One of the protesters signs read, We dont want you here. Coronavirus, White Supremacy, 45.

The number 45 is a reference to Trump. President Trump is the 45th President of the United States. Protesters and others use the number as a nickname for the President.

The protest started peacefully, with most bikers ignoring the black mask covered protestors that marched on down Main Street. One of Antifas favorite tactics is to block off a street. One biker rode his motorcycle by the group. A member of the black-clad demonstrators kicked out at bikers bike as he passed the group. Motorcycles to bikers are more than just a vehicle. They treat their bikes as a part of themselves. They are scared objects.

This trespass against the bikers ride set off the rowdy crowd. Bikers swarmed the Antifa members surrounding them. The noise from the crowd was deafening. Eggs were thrown by the bikers and hit an Antifa member. Police had to move in to protect the group from the angry bikers. The police officers had to escort the group to a safe spot away from the rally attendees.

Police Chief Geody Vandewater said the scene was little chaotic for a bit. The bikers vastly outnumbered law enforcement officers. The rallys attendees did respect the officers request that they stay back away from the protesters. The protesters want the state to defund the police but depended on the same officers to keep them safe from the massive crowd of pissed off bikers.

After the protest ended abruptly, police arrested one of the protesters from Rapid City South Dakota. The officers charge the man with disorderly conduct.

Antifa did not try to protest the rally again. The 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally ended on Sunday.

About John Crump

John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%'ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at http://www.crumpy.com.

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Antifa Unsuccessfully Tries To Protest The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News