In its never-ending mission to divide the country with fear and animosity, Fox News is “just asking” whether an “Antifa Apocalypse” designed to overthrow Trump will happen tomorrow.
The story, which is headlined, “Antifa apocalypse? Anarchist group’s plan to overthrow Trump ‘regime’ starts Saturday,” currently appears on the FoxNews.com homepage.
The article begins:
Will the so-called “Antifa apocalypse” come with a bang or a whimper?
A series of anti-government, leftist rallies set to descend on major cities nationwide Saturday is drawing the attention of local officials, who, like the organizers themselves, fear the events could be hijacked by violent masked anarchists.
With this article, Fox is giving voice to views that are associated with dark corners of the paranoid, fever swamps of the alt-right.
As reported on Raw Story, “Facebook groups, subreddits and Twitter groups are ablaze with dire warnings of a nationwide uprising of U.S. anti-fascist forces on Saturday — which they believe will kick off a second civil war.”
Raw Story noted that The Guardian cited the extensive reach of this notion which has, as its underpinnings, the belief that Antifa forces, starting tomorrow, will be trying to kill Trump voters, conservatives, and gun owners. Not surprisingly, comments on the conspiracy articles are homicidal such as “one more threat against white people and I swear to God I’m going to take a goddamn car and run over every fucking one of them.” (But as long as this person is a white American, he’s not a terrorist amiright?)
The conspiracy rests on some “slender reeds” such as a sign about November 4th, seen at a Los Angeles Antifa rally. A website “Vets Before Illegals” posted a Facebook video about this coming apocalypse and eventually Alex Jones picked up on it. And giving it even more legs, is Fox News.
Of course, Antifa (along with immigrants and minorities) is the perfect foil for Fox in that it plays to the audience’s fear of nefarious, liberal forces which are trying to destroy white, Christian America.
Enter, stage alt-right, Caleb Parke whose article states, as FOX FACT, that the “plan to overthrow Trump” begins tomorrow. He cites an anti-fascist website which is promoting November 4th protests against Trump. While the website states, “This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go,” there is no call to violence.
In further describing that alleged apocalypse, Parke references, but doesn’t link to, a Washington Post article which undercuts the alleged apocalypse: “The Antifa apocalypse is coming this weekend, if you believe the hype.” He then lists anti-Trump positions of an advisory board member for the anti-fascist website, none of which call for armed insurrection. As expected, the comments to the article are, well, homicidal which begs the question of who is scarier and more violent - Antifa or Fox News readers?!
And about Caleb Parke – He’s a Fox news associate editor who has worked with Fox’s ace culture warrior, Todd Starnes. Parke has also written for the virulently anti-choice Live Action, a group that specializes in bogus sting videos directed against Planned Parenthood. He is a graduate of Grove City College, a Christian school.
So be scared, be very scared but as these comments to the article suggest, maybe not for the same reasons Fox wants you to be.
