Since the early days of the alt-right, there has been a debate among dissidents about the utility of street protests. Prior to the Charlottesville debacle, most people, including the alt-lite types, were sure it was necessary for right-wing groups to “show the colors” on the street, even if it meant confrontation with the goon squads of the Left. Many, of course, were excited by the opportunity to mix it up with groups like Antifa. The truth is, a lot of guys were attracted to the alt-right because they wanted the action.

After the Charlottesville disaster, opinion swung the other way. Richard Spencer soldiered on with his college speaking gigs, but each one was more embarrassing than the next, as the Left turned them into a violent circus that was blamed on the alt-right and anyone within distance of them. The authorities and the media openly sided with Antifa, so these events became recruiting videos for them. It was black clad street fighters versus cartoon Nazis, with the black bloc always winning.

Despite the obvious futility of these types of things, there remains a faction that insists this sort of stuff is useful. A group calling itself Patriot Prayer holds street events in Portland Oregon, where they are pummeled by well-organized Antifa gangs, supported by the police and the mayor. This past weekend, they had a rally where a small number of them got the hell beat out of them by hundreds of Antifa. An old man was beaten with crowbars and an Asian homosexual was doused with some sort of chemical.

Of course, the internet was full of right-wingers, mostly the goofy civic nationalist types, demanding sympathy for what happened. It was the usual stuff, accusing the Left of being the real fascist enemies of freedom. It is just another form of the hand-wringing we would see from the Buckley crowd after they lost another fight with the Left. It is an effort to turn failure into noble suffering. As someone one Gab put it, it is just failure theater that makes the Left look good and the Right look like losers.

Frankly, there should be zero sympathy for the people getting beaten at these events, as they deserve the beating. If someone walks into a biker club and starts challenging the bikers on their home turf, no one would be shocked if the bikers beat the crap out of the idiot. In fact, most people would assume the guy had it coming. The same applies to these stupid street protests like the one in Portland. These people are begging to be assaulted on camera by Antifa, so they get what they deserve.

More important, they are functioning as the willing stooges of Antifa. Without some right-wing goofballs there would be no reason for the riot. If they did riot, they would be blamed for it and the media would be forced to report the truth, at least some of the truth, about the people involved. With the rental clowns from the Right, the whole show can go on according to the script. It becomes one long recruiting video for Antifa, which ends up looking like the place to go if you are young and angry.

This is an extension of a larger fight among dissidents, between the old white nationalist types and the younger, smarter activists and thinkers, who have entered the space over the last decade. The old school types like the street brawls for personal reasons, but they insist their old tactics are the only tactics. These are the people who insist on being public, self-doxing and adopting taboo iconography. These are the guys who say, “if you’re are going to be called a Nazi, you may as well be one.”

The last part, of course, is just surrendering to the Left. Once you allow the Left to define the terms, they control the language. Once they control the language, they control the public morality and you have lost. Oddly, this is the same basic mistake the Buckley types have been making for generations. The result is that the old white nationalists were never more than the organ grinder’s monkey for the Left. When lefty needed some cartoon Nazis, he would whistle and these guys would perform.

The idiocy of this stuff should be obvious, but it persists for a reason. Despite generations of failure, young men are attracted to these tactics because they offer some adventure and excitement. Even while getting humiliated by Antifa, there is a sense of fraternity that has a timeless appeal. Of course, it helps that the Left has evolved to encourage this behavior, as it furthers their interests. They have become adept at conjuring this sort of street theater and turning it into propaganda.

That said, it is exactly why charging into a left-wing stronghold in order to be pummeled into submission is suicidal stupidity. On the one hand it plays right into the familiar narrative the Left has used for generations to control white people. This is their game and they play it well. On the other hand, it suggest that dissidents are no better than the Antifa street thugs. Fair or foul, people judge you by the company you keep and those pictures of street brawls are what normal white people see on television.

Activism of any sort is about encouraging your side and discouraging the other side. If your efforts encourage the other side, they are always bad for your side. Making the enemy stronger is never good. On the other hand, activism that makes your side stronger, outside the sight of the enemy is the best, as it leaves them unprepared. By definition, the sorts of street theater we saw in Portland should be avoided. In fact, it should be assumed they are staged by the Left to serve the ends of their activism.

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