Your problem isn't that you're mistaken about Antifa existing as a belief system. It's that you fundamentally misunderstood what the initial criticism of Trump was. It was that he was idiotically talking about Antifa as if it were an organization, one that could be designated a criminal organization or put on a watch list.

That's not my problem. My problem is that I've seen Antifa up close and observed their movements, tactics and behaviors. That's what living in a city like Seattle does for you. Note that I *do not* live in a suburb. I live in Ground Zero, right in the city a mile or so from downtown.

I know a fair amount about Antifa. How they organize, what their tactics are, even how they dress up before their riots (they use layers, by the way, in case they lose a balaclava they have multiple ones on). They like to gather in dark parks a little ways aways from their main target so they can march through neighborhoods in shows of strength. They consist of young, disaffected people and the occasional adult who never grew out of their Stick It To The Man Phase who get a rush running in a group, playing dress up and watching stuff burn. Individually, they tend to be largely nothing - they serve coffee, fold sweaters or teach Marxism all day - it's only in their wolfpacks are they dangerous.

I've had to learn this by living through their crap for a multi year period.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan. You wouldn't be either if you had to put up with multiple years of

-physical assaults
-intimidation of elected officials
-freeway closures
-holding people in their vehicles against their will
-destroying historic properties
-vandalizing businesses
-trashing parks
-driving around neighborhoods blowing up M-80s at 2 in the morning
-Intimidating shopping and restaurant patrons

I knew exactly what Trump meant. There's a reason they don't pull the stuff they pull in places like Texas or Alabama or for that matter, rural counties here in (extremely well-armed) Washington state. They'd get served up and the little shits know it. So...they keep their fun confined largely to Seattle proper.

Your problem is that you view them through this lens of abstraction where since it doesn't affect you in any way it must be some kind of made up right wing fantasy. It's just a total coincidence that multiple cells in multiple cities and states have the same tactics, the same websites, everything.

The reality is that there is coordination and there is facilitation across groups that happens. Is there some Ernst Blofeld dude with a white cat (actually, in this case he'd have a black cat since that's one of their symbols) in an underwater headquarters someplace? No.

But there *are* groups that help them and other terror orgs out in terms of 'net infrastructure and there are groups that help with the interstate stuff they do. How do you think they have sophisticated comms networks? How do you think they're able to coordinate movement to get numbers in different places so easily? How do you think they dissemble tactics that law enforcement develops to use against them? Ever wonder how they all get top notch legal representation?

They coordinate and operate across state lines. *You* refuse to acknowledge that and for years the feds didn't either. Now they do and we're finally seeing some of them get sentenced in federal court.

But because Trump Said A Thing This Board goes into its usual apoplectic paroxysms over it. The truth is trump could say that Water is Wet and half of this board would argue that water doesn't exist.