Some Thoughts on Antifawatch.net

A few days ago I got a message from someone who wanted to let me know about some bad news:  that I had a listing on an apparently infamous rightwing website called Antifawatch.net.  This is bad news presumably because being featured on this website means you're on some kind of hit list.

Not to dismiss the inherent threat of violence we're talking about here -- it's real enough.  But there's another rightwing, violent-prone network of Zionists, the followers of the assassinated rightwing rabbi Kahane, who put me on their SHIT (Self-Hating International Terrorists) list decades ago, and I'm still here.  More than that, I have the same level of security as most members of the Congress have -- so many of whom receive death threats and similar messages every day -- which is none.  Which is just to say that fortunately, most threats on the internet do not get carried out.  Little comfort, perhaps, but more than none.

Since learning of the existence of this sad little website, though, I'll make a few observations about its content.  

The website features 1,130 listings altogether -- not many, considering it's supposed to be a crowdsourced database of antifascists.  There are a lot more than 1,130 people in the US who would fit their definition of antifascists, even if it were much stricter than it is.  Of the 1,130 listings, a very large number are from Portland, Oregon.  

This rightwing community's definition of "Portland Antifa" is extremely broad, and includes lots of community organizers, union organizers, tenant organizers, progressive candidates for local political office, pacifists or other people who have had zero involvement with anything remotely resembling street fighting -- as well as some of the young folks earnestly trying to drive the Proud Boys out of town or burn down their local police station, who might fit the more typical understanding of the term "Antifa."

My favorite part of their listing about me is the graphic.  Many other listings only get a mug shot for a graphic, but I get a nice collage.

There are certain things they clearly think are important to highlight from this graphic.  One is that I am pictured in the upper right performing in front of a Palestinian flag.  This photo was taken in Palestine, in fact.  How it is relevant, I assume, is that it is bad to play in front of a Palestinian flag or to be supportive of the Palestinian struggle, and good to support the self-proclaimed Jewish State.  Rightwingers these days support Israel, just like my pretend anarchist critics do.

The next graphic, taken from the cover of a 2021 album, May Day, refers to May Day as "the commie New Year."  Apparently these rightwingers are not aware, or not interested, in National Socialism of the sort that is interested in the prosperity of the working class.  The Nazis marched on May Day in large numbers, and would not have appreciated May Day being called a "commie" anything, despite its origins within the American labor movement.

Demonstrating that rightwingers can have a sense of humor, too, they refer to the hoodies available for purchase on my website as my "spring riot-wear collection."

Here's the text of the current entry on me that they have below this graphic:

David Stefan Rovics (DOB: 04/10/67) is a folk singer/song writer and a self-professed Antifascist. The left is often alleged to be fratricidal and his interactions with Portland Antifa appear to support the theory. He recently (2022) entered into a social media cancellation war with several Portland area online Antifa personalities such as Shane Burley. The Antifa trolls accused their fellow leftist, apparently unironically, of antisemitism and holocaust denial. They even claimed he associates with neo-Nazis which is unlikely because Rovics seems to be a hard-left antifascist. The Portland trolls contacted one of the NYC Antifa groups that was hosting a concert Rovics was performing at and attempted to have his performance cancelled. Rovics retaliated by doxxing the trolls accounts (but not the Antifa behind the accounts) on his blog. He also posted an antifascist survey on his blog. 

Rovics is another antifascist alum of Evergreen State College. He seems to advocate for tenants issues which isn't surprising given he lives with his wife and kids in a rather modest apartment in southeast Portland.

For the record, for whatever it's worth, there are a couple points here I'd like to correct.

I'm not a "self-professed Antifascist."  I'm against fascism.  No professing involved.

They accurately describe Shane Burley as a troll, though the term "self-professed antifascist" could be used to describe this cancellation campaigning apologist for Israeli apartheid instead.  Although it may be accurate to describe much of the modern American left as fratricidal, I'd extend their tribal warfare reference here to invite them to consider that while the left is fratricidal, more fratricidal still is the working class, of which most of the contributors to Antifawatch.net and most of the people they describe as Antifa undoubtedly are a part.  We are being used -- you, too, Antifawatch.net.

The apparently not very intelligent individuals contributing to this website who obviously don't do research for shit can't even figure out why my allegedly antifascist trolls are constantly attacking me, so I'll help them:  I talked to one of you guys.  Or at least that's what my critics say.  I talked to a fascist.  Or an ex-fascist, depending on who you ask, like if you ask him (him being Matthew Heimbach).  So if by "hard left" they mean I don't talk to people I have disagreements with, I'm not that guy.  And neither are so many of the people they have categorized ridiculously as "Portland Antifa." 

On their own website they seem to be careful about not sharing home addresses of people they have listings for.  I assume this is something they do for legal reasons, so they're not accused of "doxxing."  Oddly, though, they say I "doxxed" my allegedly antifascist trolls (after said trolls engaged in organized campaigns to get my gigs canceled).  However, I did not reveal the name or home address of anyone.  So this must be a new definition of "doxxing," along with their new definition of "Antifa."

These people are a joke (of the "own goal" variety), though probably a very well-armed one.  

I just hope they -- along with my "antifascist" trolls who say the same kind of stuff about me -- will someday soon wake up from their brainwashed, tribalistic stupor, turn off their computers, and see the world around them.