Nina-Bytes: Courting Destruction in Fascist America

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An Anti-Antifascist Alliance

In my opinion, one of the most beneficial aspects of both the January 6th Commission Report, and the various indictments against Donald Trump, is that they exposed American fascism, and its ongoing coup attempt, as an open alliance of wealthy donors, mainstream political power brokers, shamefully dishonest grifters, and violent street fascists. While it’s debatable whether or not this reality has fully seeped into the American public consciousness as of yet, the exposure of this information has still made it much easier to dissect and talk about less nationally important iterations of this same reactionary alliance. To that end, I’d like to take a closer look at this article about the fallout from Andy Ngo’s (mostly) unsuccessful attempts to “sue Antifa,” as documented by Shane Burley, writing for Truthout:

Andy Ngo Lost His Suit. Why Are Defendants on the Line for Damages?

As the title of this piece suggests, Burley is writing about noted fascist propagandist Andy Ngo’s failed lawsuit, based on reactionary conspiracy nonsense, seeking damages of $900,000 dollars from 50 activists and protestors Ngo spuriously identifies as part of an “Antifa” criminal conspiracy to harm him. For readers blessedly unfamiliar with Ngo’s work, I think it’s more than fair to describe him as a right-wing provocateur, who poses as an investigative journalist and expert on “left wing violence” for fascist politicians, right wing media, and numerous reactionary think tanks, while simultaneously working to dox antifascist activists for his friends in violent fascist street gangs, like Patriot Prayer. As it turns out however, Ngo’s fascist propaganda didn’t play as well in the courtroom as it did on Fox News; a revelation that will surprise precisely no one who is familiar with Andy’s “work.”

All is not well on the frontlines however, because as Burley and experts the author cites note, the blatantly spurious nature of Ngo’s claims make it somewhat transparent that winning a financial judgement probably wasn’t Andy’s goal, or that of his funders. From out here, this whole thing looks like a fascist propaganda operation designed to intimidate activists, demonize antifascism, and generate ideological grist for the greater American right’s war against leftists and activists, all while allowing Andy to solicit donations and support from fascists eager to see his conspiracy theories against the left normalized in the larger public discourse. Indeed, as the article notes, this sham lawsuit feeds into pretty much everything about Andy’s fascist grift:

“For [Ngo], it was a way to create a new chapter/new book, new ways to bring in donations,” says Alissa Azar, an independent journalist who was present for the trial. “Aside from money, I think it was a way for him to try and use the system to uncover people’s identities, regardless what part they played in any of the involved incidents, and using that to further harass people, encourage and incite violence, and more fuel for his lie-infested ‘articles’ and content.”

Frankly, even beating the crap out of Andy Ngo and some fascist lawyers in court, costs money. The two primary defendants featured in this story were still on the hook for about $40,000 in legal fees at the time Burley published. Furthermore, while Ngo might not have won the two cases he was ultimately allowed to contest in court, after his accusations against most of the remaining defendants were simply rejected by a judge, he did manage to get three judgements for 100,000 dollars each against defendants who didn’t respond to the lawsuit, and claim to have no involvement with the incident Andy accused them of perpetrating whatsoever. Explaining that kangaroo court horsecrap is practically a whole story by itself, but suffice to say it features a newspaper ad functioning as a court summons, for at least one defendant the court knew the location of:

“I had no idea the trials were actually going through. I had no idea the state of Oregon had tried to serve me and had done so via publication,” said Sammich Overkill Schott-Deputy, who uses they/them pronouns, and says they found out about the trial as it was happening. The county, they say, knew where they were residing because they were on probation. The summons was published in The Oregonian as a way of reaching defendants the court could not reach in other ways, which can be determined to meet the legal bar for notification.

Ngo alleged Schott-Deputy was involved in the infamous June 29, 2019, milkshake incident, but the only evidence provided was video in which Schott-Deputy was seen standing at a distance in the background. Schott-Deputy claims they “had no clue whatsoever” who Ngo was at the time. It was only when Schott-Deputy was arrested in a separate incident that they first heard about the possibility of being named in the suit, but their subsequent conviction and incarceration rendered them unable to respond. Schott-Deputy assumed that since the court was monitoring them closely, the court would have provided them with a summons.”

This is all entirely concocted from woo and skullduggery, but that certainly hasn’t stopped right wing media from running with headlines about how poor little Andy Ngo was awarded $300,000 dollars in seemingly-uncollectable judgments, and this proves that every lie he’s ever uttered about “Antifa” and antifascist activists is true. In the end, I think that’s clearly the important angle here, because on his lonesome, Ngo is just some weird little crank whose claim to fame was getting kicked off his school newspaper, and lying in the Wall Street Journal about “no-go zones” in Muslim populated areas of Britain.

The post-Charlottesville rise of Ngo as a prominent fascist propagandist who publicly marks out targets for fascist stochastic violence on behalf of a larger fascist movement, has been utterly dependent on the backing of more wealthy, influential, and powerful actors in the fascist political sphere. Ngo has appeared on Fox News, worked with the Heritage Foundation, and even testified on the floor of the United States Senate as an “expert witness” for fascist GOP conspiracy theories designed to take the heat off of the violent fascists who support their fascist party. As one of the experts quoted in Burley’s piece notes, this lawsuit seems to be a direct result of that breadth and depth of project integration in the fascist political world:

“Portland State University’s Ross tells Truthout that the case suggests a high level of integration between wealthy donors, the legal sphere and the media sphere, and reveals “how wealthy donors can conjure up a legal practice on behalf of a right-wing provocateur with an obvious lack of integrity in order to back his specious lawsuit with the intention of stripping civil liberties from huge portions of the population by falsely implicating two activists and dragging their lives through a grotesque and miserable circus sideshow.”

Look folks, like yourselves, I’ve spent the past ten years learning to develop a healthy distrust of anything that looks like a wild conspiracy theory, but when fascists across politics, the media, and in the streets are all openly, violently working to demonize leftists, protestors, and specifically antifascist activists, I feel pretty comfortable suggesting this is simply a conspiracy reality now. The larger fascist right in America is a well-funded, ideologically connected (if incoherent) movement that stretches across traditional class lines to a degree, and remains united in destroying any perceived threat to the capitalist, white supremacist hierarchy that’s woven through the very fabric of our country. The fascist politicians in office, the fascist propagandists in the media, and the violent fascist thugs in the streets are all working for the same wealthy fascist donors, who are paying to destroy anyone who threatens the capitalist extraction that’s boiling our planet, because it is the source of their wealth and power.

The simple truth is that toothless street nazis don’t have the power to enact a fascist takeover of the American state and social life. At the end of virtually every one of these “grass roots” or “political” fascist astro-turfed pressure groups you’ll find rich winger donors whose public personas are those of “well-respected businessmen” and “financially influential power brokers.” The fascists are winning because American life is a game rigged for rich capitalists, and the nazis have plenty of those people eager to donate their money, time, and careers to the greater project of protecting capital by crushing the left. I can’t say I find that reality very comforting, but at some point the folks around me are going to need to start accepting what time it is, because “let’s pretend” is not a viable strategy for defeating an ongoing fascist takeover.

 

– Nina Illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic and analyst.

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, and on Mastodon.

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