The Meaning of Pikeville

I went to the Traditionalist Worker’s Party rally in Pikeville, KY this weekend.

It was an 8 and 1/2 hour drive from Alabama. I wasn’t planning to travel such a long distance, especially on the heels of Auburn, but I was concerned enough to do so. I also encouraged others to go. I went simply because antifas were planning to show up and they are out of control in this country.

I’m worried about what I think of as the Nazi dike. By that I mean primarily what we have been seeing from the antifas on our television for the past year and a half now. It started during the Trump campaign. They would show up and disrupt Trump rallies, physically assault people, spit on people and chase them through the streets. In Chicago and California, they rioted during the campaign. At one point, Trump himself had to sneak into the California Republican Convention.

The antifas got even more violent after the election. They spent several days protesting, rioting, blocking traffic and beating up Trump supporters in the streets. They threatened Richard Spencer when he spoke at Texas A&M. In Washington, DC, they put on quite a show at Trump’s inauguration. They punched Richard Spencer, beat people up outside the Deploraball, rioted and smashed a McDonald’s and Starbucks and physically attacked more Trump supporters who were in town for the inauguration. Hundreds of antifas were arrested and charged with felony rioting.

The “Punch a Nazi” meme took off on the Left. There was a big public debate on “punching Nazis” which many in the “mainstream” on the Left insisted was perfectly justified. They were normalizing and sanctioning political violence. I said at the time that an important line was being crossed. A few weeks later, the antifas rioted against MILO at Berkeley, which was on the heels of someone getting shot attempting to no platform a MILO event at the University of Washington.

Since February, we have seen antifas attempt to no platform Ann Coulter at Berkeley, Jordan Peterson at McMaster University, Charles Murray at Middlebury College, Gavin McInnes at NYU, Heather MacDonald at Pomona College and Richard Spencer at Auburn. We’ve seen clashes with antifas in the streets all over the country at Trump rallies like at Huntington Beach. There had been two all out brawls between the Alt-Lite and Trump supporters at Berkeley before the peaceful rally there last week. Even then, the threat of antifa violence succeeded in deterring Ann Coulter from speaking on campus.

We’ve watched antifas riot overseas in France against Marine Le Pen and the National Front throughout the French presidential election. They are now manifesting in New Orleans and inserting themselves into the Confederate monuments controversy there. We saw them come from Atlanta to confront the Alt-Right at Auburn. This weekend we saw them raise over $6,000 online to bus 150 antifas into Eastern Kentucky. They are getting more organized, violent and determined to challenge our rights.

I’m keeping a close eye on the Nazi dike. A turning point for me was when Richard Spencer had to get an injunction in federal court to speak at Auburn University. It was a stark reminder that the absence of our voice from public spaces, our existence bottled up on the internet, was beginning to take a toll on our constitutional rights. Increasingly, we are not allowed to rent hotel rooms without harassment or hold public events without the threat of violent opposition. Sooner or later, we are going to begin to lose our First Amendment and Second Amendment rights like our European counterparts.

Nazis are the scapegoat. In the name of “anti-fascism,” crimes like physical assault, tortious interference with contracts and vandalism are becoming normalized and celebrated on the Left. It is becoming okay now for righteous leftists to wield pepper spray, bike locks and crowbars against their political opponents. We are seeing a major attempt to criminalize and stigmatize “hate speech” to erode the First Amendment. Millions of Millennial snowflakes already believe that “hate speech” should be illegal.

That’s where the real threat to our rights and liberties is coming from. It is coming from antifas who are opposed to “Nazism.” Of course, in their eyes, everyone from Donald Trump to MILO to Ann Coulter is a “Nazi,” so they are justified in engaging in criminal behavior. What would happen if the actual Nazis like the NSM lost their constitutional right to free speech and free assembly in this hysterical political climate? It would set a precedent which would be swiftly used to criminalize the rest of us.

Everyone on the Right ought to shore up “the Nazi dike” because that is where the communist flood will breach our defenses and overwhelm us. If groups like the Traditionalist Worker’s Party, NSM and the Nationalist Front retain the right to speak in public, to assemble in public and to go about their business without the threat of violence, then the constitutional rights of everyone else are more secure. Everyone who is pro-White actually isn’t a Nazi, but to our avowed enemies who want to kill us these distinctions really aren’t of much importance. In their eyes, we’re all Nazis no matter what we say or believe, and somehow that justifies them acting much worse than the people they are opposing.

Pikeville was an important clash in this emerging culture war. 150 antifas were bused into town from out of state. They spent hours screaming “Punch a Nazi.” By the end of the day, the Traditionalist Worker’s Party had successfully held their event, their rights to free speech and free assembly were asserted and upheld, and there was no violence. Zero Nazis were punched in Pikeville. Open carry laws deter violence. It was a victory for the First Amendment and Second Amendment and a defeat for violent communist gangs bent on “no platforming.” We’ve taken away violence and anonymity from them.

The real story of Pikeville, which was also the case in Auburn, is that groups and individuals who don’t have a history of working together perceive a common threat now. The movement has always been divided over National Socialism, religion and countless other wedge issues. Now we are dealing with an extremely violent communist gang which is organizing to spill our blood in the streets. This gang doesn’t care about these various divisions within our ranks. The only way to neutralize this menace is to organize a larger and even meaner street gang. That’s what we are starting to see all over the place.

The antifas have ignited a reaction against them. A few years ago, these street rallies would have been about appealing to the public, but that has become a secondary consideration due to all the recent violence. Now, they are rapidly becoming anti-antifa events. They are anti-communist and anti-anarchist rallies. Every single time one of our people is jumped and assaulted by a coward with a bike lock we begin to care less about our various divisions and more about destroying antifas.

I know this has certainly had an effect on me. I used to be highly critical of militias and militancy in the movement. Now, I firmly believe that a Southern Defense Force is justified. A White Bloc is justified to neutralize the Black Bloc. Similarly, I used to worry more about the optics of our street demonstrations, but now I place greater value on our security in public places. When 100 heavily armed Nazis showed up after 150 antifas had been screaming at me for the past two hours, I didn’t care about the optics. I had never been so glad to see the Traditionalist Worker’s Party and NSM!

Do you hate antifas? Are you an anti-communist? Are you an anti-anarchist? If so, you are a potential ally against our common enemy. We can argue about all this other shit later. That’s the way I am starting to think now. It isn’t the way I thought about these things a year ago.

Where does this go from here? I assumed that it might have peaked at Berkeley. The antifas didn’t show up and there was no violence. Pikeville seems to indicate an escalation.