George Graham

No Revolution After All

 

When will the true believers of the right  get it?  They insist on shutting out credible news sources and living in a “fake news” bubble when time and again the information they’re being fed turns out to be hogwash.

They were assured, for example, that “civil war” would erupt yesterday. They were warned that a violent left-wing group, known as Antifa, would take to the streets, smashing and burning, and a swarm of “patriots” would rise up to confront them.

So how did it go in your neighborhood?

As for our neck of the woods, nobody came marauding down Post Lane, disturbing the peace and frightening our cats.

My nephew Chris, who lives in Toronto but has access to America’s right-wing news bubble, tells me a few Antifa rebels turned out in Austin, Texas, and were greeted by a couple of hundred “patriots.” No windows were broken and a rousing patriot rally ensued.

I found no mention of an uprising in Yahoo News this morning, so I Googled it.

And apparently, all was quiet not only on the Post Lane front, but across the land. Search engines turned up nothing about a revolution erupting yesterday. There was a flood of stories predicting the “Antifa Apocalypse” but hardly a mention of what actually happened.

I found a report of a “protest” in Portland, Oregon, in which “verbal jousting” occurred between a handful of “anti-fascists” and even fewer “patriots.” But there wasn’t much more to be found because basically nothing happened.

Here’s how Newsweek described the “revolution” in New York City:

By 2:30 PM, a half-an-hour after the New York City event was supposed to begin, a little more than 300 people showed up, according to NYPD officers tasked with securing it. Many of the signs Refuse Fascism had prepared sat stacked against a metal railing. Organizers handed out leaflets about the Revolutionary Communist Party, an older, radical group with ties to Refuse Fascism. Over a thousand people had previously committed to going to the November 4 protests on Facebook, and roughly five thousand had pledged interest, but when all was said and done, burgeoning leftist groups like Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), protest mainstays like Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the masked anarchists that had captured the imagination of people on the far right failed to attend.

I can’t wait to read the right-wing explanations for this dismal anticlimax. Did they get the date wrong? That’s what they usually say when their bogus predictions turn out to be a bust.

Don’t you think the far-right disinformnation bubble would’ve lost all credibility by now? As Peter, Paul and Mary wondered so long ago:

Oh, when will they ever learn?

More on the bogus revolution

The Guardian’s explanation

The Newsweek report

Peter, Paul & Mary

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com