More evidence that it takes quite a long time for Portland to pick up on world trends.
A few paragraphs in, and I have this mental check list to this James Pitkin Willamette Week article. A fairly reasonable and predictable quote from Chip Berlet (check), a quote from the Southern Poverty Law Center on “right wing extremist recruiting” (check), and something from PSU Sociology Professor and reformed ex-skin-head Professor Blazak. (Nope) I’m two for three on a drinking game or bingo game of alt weekly fascist coverage.
Leaving that aside, and pointing out that I know that van, and with a passing reference to something about about this:
Anelauskas’ talk was moved to the Old Wives’ Tales restaurant on East Burnside Street. About 12 people showed up to hear his talk on the Frankfurt School, a group of 20th-century Marxist scholars Anelauskas accuses of sabotaging Western culture. In a video of the lecture available online, Anelauskas makes no overtly anti-Semitic remarks.
Predictably enough, this has been clipped by Lyndon Larouche and his organization for their salad of conspiracy theories… see here, 5 paragraphs in — a list of those sorts of things, read by nobody.
But leaving that side, the thing I found peculiar enough about this article. Tell me if I’m wrong with this one. There is something unconvincing and incomplete about this history of the “Anti Fascist Movement” for Portland:
Anti-fascism first arose in Europe in the 1920s to oppose violent far-right groups, and has since spread to the Americas and Australia. Rose City Antifa is part of the Anti-Racist Action Network, which boasts 20 chapters in cities across the U.S. and Canada.
Rose City Antifa was founded in 2007, when anti-racists organized to shut down a meeting of the neo-Nazi Hammerskin Nation set for the Sherwood Elks Lodge.
So, it took 80 years for the “Anti Fascist Movement” to spread from Europe to Portland?