There's a few pictures currently going around of a group of Patriot Front fascist paramilitaries on Washington DC public transport.
A lot of people are worried by this. Some have talked at length about their worries.
As someone who spends a certain amount of time in black bloc, let me talk you through some things I haven't seen said about these pictures but that I think are very relevant.
Replying to @passenger@kolektiva.social
Firstly and most obviously: the clothes are uniform.
No two people in a black bloc will be wearing the same getup, besides black and a mask. Some wear hoodies, some snoods, some baseball caps. Some wear trainers, some walking boots and some Docs. I often wear hoodies and army boots because it's what I'm comfortable in.
You will frequently see people turn up to black bloc wearing battle jackets, or band hoodies, despite these being a bad idea because they identify you.
These fash are all wearing exactly the same clothes. Exactly. This is a uniform and it means someone bought it for them (edit: or they have a supplier they all buy from, and enough discipline to ensure they all obey.) Either way this means there's organisation and money behind it, and while these fash might be the very visible front line, they're also just part of a larger machine.
Replying to @passenger@kolektiva.social
Secondly, the clothes fit and they're clean.
Black blocs usually include a fair percentage of squatters, as well as metalheads and other reprobates. Some people clean their clothes, others live with parents or partners who do that for them, but you're never going to get everyone turning up in crisp stuff smelling like it came out of the dryer.
Likewise, a lot of anarchists wear second-hand clothing, either passed around via free shops or by hand, or from charity shops. Clothes stretch over time, and human bodies change. Ill-fitting black hoodies are practically de rigeur. This is reflected in the appearance of the black bloc.
These fash, though? All their stuff fits perfectly. Their patches are all well-sewn. Look at them. Derek Guy might criticise the sizing or the cut, but I am not Derek Guy. To me, this is well-kept clothing carefully sized and washed, and possibly new. This is clothing-as-class-signifier.
What you are seeing is not just a display of racial supremacy, but of class supremacy.
Replying to @passenger@kolektiva.social
You know how people say that mushrooms are only the most visible part of a much larger and mostly invisible mycellium network?
This is a metaphor.
Uniforms like this are an indicator that when you look at the fascists wearing them, you're seeing the visible part of a much larger and mostly invisible network of logistics, support and money.
You should not trust people who wear uniforms. But you should certainly not trust those who provided them those uniforms.
Replying to @passenger@kolektiva.social
Thirdly, because I forgot earlier:
There are more than four hundred Patriot Front members in the US. Of course, not everyone can afford to drop everything and go to DC to parade for a few hours in the sweltering heat. But even so, this is a subset.
Okay, so, which subset?
Look at them. They're all fit and bodily able. There aren't obese people there. There aren't disabled people there. Are there obese and/or disabled fascists? Yes, absolutely. But none showed up here. When we call a black bloc demo we get loads of people with bodies of all shapes and sizes, and this is a good thing - as the saying in the UK goes, "a fat lass with a low centre of gravity is a terror in a melee."
This means they didn't select the subgroup along the lines of "those who can make it to DC today." They were selecting for able-bodied people who are visually physically impressive.
This means that they have a leadership who can say to people "sorry, you're too short, you aren't coming to the big day, we would rather have one fewer person than include you"; they have enough internal discipline that this order is obeyed; and they have the concept that this is a good idea.
Replying to @passenger@kolektiva.social
This is, to them, a sign of strength. They are all physically perfect, no impurity among them, blah blah.
In an actual street confrontation it's a sign of weakness. If they're facing off against me, I have the assistance of my fat friend and my squatter crustpunk friend, and they do not because they told them to stay away, so I outnumber them.
@passenger Makes sense they'd pick for master race optics rather than people who are there to fight necessarily. They do however have the support of the state through the police to do the violence for them.
Oh for sure.
Honestly though, if I were them I'd be worried. The normal place for fascist paramilitaries like this is to do the violence that the formal state forces choose not to do, to project force with the state's permission but beyond its current ideological capacity. Meanwhile, in this specific case of fascism, actual formal state forces like ICE are desperate for more recruits.
These guys have shown that they're a) incapable of projecting force in a meaningful way due to their tiny numbers, and b) haven't had their manpower recruited into ICE or another formal state force yet.
Honestly it's kinda pathetic. I mean, all fascism is pathetic, but this especially so.
@passenger @nini There's an ongoing theory that these guys are feds or fed-adjacent, created as a sort of new KKK.
@threetails @passenger @nini re the numbers: I'm convinced that's half of why they mask themselves. it's more or less the same 400 losers being deployed all over the country via some "rent a mercenary fascist pig for your next event" situation
I think there's a good chance that a fair few of them are also in the National Guard, are cops, or ICE, or BP, or other government paramilitary.