What’s going to happen at the next battle of Berkeley?
Ann coulter has cancelled the speech she was scheduled to deliver on the 27th, which we’re all really cut up about, impending violence, implications for free speech, end of America etc etc. But the main event was always going to be watching militia-men dressed like Spartan warriors hitting bandy-legged anarchists with their Anime waifu pillows. Here are a couple of trends to watch for as the Fash is Bashed and/or free helicopter rides are dispensed, or, more likely, the two groups mill around filming themselves for 5 hours while you watch on Periscope and wonder when someone’s going to get punched. Get comfy fam.
1) Infighting on the right
Coulter’s speech was cancelled because the group that originally sponsored it (Young Americans Foundation) pulled their support. For that, they’ve been subject to more criticism from the right than the University itself has. YAF haven’t announced at this point whether they will have an official presence at the festivities, but if they do they may not be super welcome by their own “side”.
2) The emergence of new groups
Antifa and BAMN are the key groups on the left. On the right, last time out we got a dizzying array of fancy-dress accelerationists including Identity Evropa, Oathkeepers, Proud Boys, three per centers, Based Stick Man and at least two actual Nazis. A 4chan user posted a thread about a new group called the Blueshirts who may be in attendance but you never know how much of this stuff is long-distance LARPing and how much is in-person LARPing until the day comes. It seems likely some new group will emerge, if only because there’s a chance you might end up on the front page of the New York Times with your mom-made uniform drenched in someone’s blood. But only if you’re lucky!
3) Police inaction
Shane Bauer of Mother Jones had some great coverage last time out, including some good photos and a video of this hilarious and scary interaction with a cop. He asks where all the police are and is dismissed, although the tenor of the cop’s answers suggest what he’s really saying is if you keep asking me awkward questions you will be taken to a black site and never heard from again, you little prick, which isn’t very nice. Anyway, due to the visibility of the events and their disastrous experiences so far police might actually have to get stuck in this time which could add some extra spice or shut the whole thing down. At Auburn police employed the successful tactic of making people (ie Antifa) remove masks, which dampened down the atmosphere and resulted in things passing off in relative peace. There’s a chance the Berkeley Police might learn from that, but probably not. It would impact Antifa harder than the other side if they did.
4) The threat of Weaponised Autism
Speaking of unmasking! /Pol/ did some truly terrifying, Orwellian work over the last month identifying antifa, including the bike-lock bandit himself. Antifa will be wary of this kind of doxxing (I fucking would be, I mean Jesus Christ, it’s not funny at all) and may take additional steps to protect their identity. In reality that probably means 100% of attendees on the antifa side will cover their faces rather than the usual 85%. If fewer antifa/ antifa-sympathetic protesters turn up, it might be because the risk of being doxxed just isn’t worth it.
In summary this whole thing might be a total damp squib, but it might not, one way or another we’re witnessing the collapse of western democracy as we know it so you may as well comfort yourself by warming your hands on the fire.
