Anticom’s Charlotte Rally

A few days ago, Anticom asked me to share the news of their upcoming rally in Charlotte, NC. I was happy to do so. I met some of their members in New Orleans, saw them again in Charlottesville and was looking forward to collaborating with them again in the future:

December 28th, 2 PM EST.
Marshall Park.
Charlotte, NC.@RichardBSpencer @SenatorInvictus @VanAmOfficial
And more.#MarchAgainstCommunism pic.twitter.com/8h14Q5byNi

— Anticom (@anticomofficial) September 21, 2017

Since then, a lot of shade has been thrown on this event. I think some of the criticism justified. I think some of it is unjustified. At any rate, the event in Charlotte is still three months out, which is more than enough time to address and sort out these concerns. I didn’t think it was such a big deal.

Let’s start with where I agree with the critics:

1.) Guns – As Weev noted, it is illegal to parade, observe as a spectator or participate in a demonstration with a firearm in North Carolina. This is a good point. Every state is different and what was legal in Virginia is illegal in North Carolina. Obviously, it is not a good idea to bring firearms to any event in North Carolina, especially in a leftwing stronghold like Charlotte.

2.) Date – This is my major objection to the event in Charlotte. The date is too close to Christmas. Most people who would like to attend will be either with their families, traveling or just getting home on December 28. I know this is true in my case and it is the reason why I am unlikely to attend. The date needs to be moved either back to earlier in December or pushed forward to January. The organizers also need to be aware of when college students will be dealing with exams.

3.) Torches – If you are going to hold a torchlight parade, the time and location should never be announced publicly. Assuredly, the media will be there to film anyone and anything involving fire can be disrupted by Antifa in ways too horrific to contemplate going forward with.

Charlotte News ‘It’s not our say:’ Why CMPD will uphold Anticom’s right to protest https://t.co/BoQxowniUK pic.twitter.com/kGode2NDYp

— Charlotte NewsChan (@_Charlotte_NC) September 27, 2017

An #anticom protest planned for Charlotte raises safety concerns pic.twitter.com/XkzvMIWcbB

— Tim Spears (@tspearstv) September 25, 2017

4.) Demographics – After Charlottesville, the vast majority of people in our community are justifiably concerned about walking into another trap. Many have noted that North Carolina has a Democrat governor and Charlotte has a liberal mayor and black police chief. It goes without saying that this is a combination of factors reminiscent of Charlottesville which we be wise to avoid. There are any number of White suburbs in Mecklenburg County or nearby Union County, Cabarrus County or Gaston County which would be a much better location to hold this event. If the event was held in the Charlotte suburbs, it would dispense with the liberal mayor and black police chief and would be much safer.

If I was organizing this event, I would hold the rally in the Charlotte Metropolitan Area, probably somewhere like Concord or Huntersville. Once our people have arrived in the area, we could always travel into Charlotte as necessary for unannounced events. The only value of doing anything in Charlotte would be for the publicity and the optic for which a flash event is better suited.

While the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department claims they will enforce the law, the same was true of the Charlottesville Police. We will have no idea until we get there. We can’t assume Mayor Jennifer Roberts won’t pressure Police Chief Kerr Putney to issue a stand down order, give Antifa a free hand to attack and then arrest us when we are forced to defend ourselves.

Here’s where I disagree with the critics:

1.) Socialism – It seems that a lot of criticism of this event has been based around the fact that Anticom is a pro-capitalist organization. If anything is true, this positions Anticom a lot closer to the eternal normie in North Carolina. While I am highly critical of capitalism (see the Tory position on capitalism and socialism), I don’t think we need to constantly counter-signal capitalism either. We should be able to agree to disagree on economics. Also, there is nothing be gained by constantly trying to appeal to socialists and communists who are our avowed enemies in the streets.

2.) Guns – As we have already seen, we can’t hold armed demonstrations in North Carolina. It seems that some people, however, are opposed to armed demonstrations in general. In Pikeville, we had an armed demonstration and there were no injuries or arrests. In Charlottesville, we had a disarmed demonstration and Antifa were emboldened to attack us with every weapon in their arsenal.

After Charlottesville, the League of the South decided we weren’t going to participate in any further disarmed rallies. We thought it was a mistake from the outset not to bring firearms which some people thought would be “too provocative.” Against our better judgment and experience, we went along with that plan for the first time in our history and the result was chaos and injuries. Instead of engaging in street brawls with Antifa, we are going to return to the formula which has worked for us in the past. We believe that disarmed rallies and gun free zones encourage street violence.

In Charlottesville, Redneck Revolt came armed and even drew their guns on our people who were removing the speaking equipment from Lee Park. It is worth noting that Redneck Revolt is also a pro-gun group. Even Antifa realize the stupidity of being against guns in the South. The last thing we want to do is create a dynamic where Antifa is positioned as pro-gun and the Alt-Right as anti-gun in the South. We’re always going to be as armed as Redneck Revolt at all of our future events.

3.) American Flags – If disarmed rallies sound dangerous and unappealing, exclusively using the American flag at disarmed rallies is even more so. Who is down for getting a few guys together to go get beat up with the American flag like Joey Gibson?

This isn’t going to work for a number of reasons. In Joey Gibson’s case, it works because he is half-Japanese, believes in his conservative rhetoric and can’t so easily be branded a “racist.” If we were to go get beat up like Joey Gibson, no one would sympathize with us. On the contrary, the reaction would be more along the lines of the racists and Nazis got what they deserved.

The idea here is to appeal to the normies, but it isn’t normies who come to these events. Normies are individualists and materialists. They are people who are satisfied with life or who have difficulty thinking beyond their own personal self interest. The people who come to events are overwhelmingly angry and disaffected. In fact, they skew toward the highly disaffected and altruistic. They are doing this because they believe in a cause greater than themselves and want to change their circumstances.

The Patriot groups who use the American flags aren’t normies either. Anyone who has followed the Patriot movement knows that it is a scene. It is the same people traveling all over the country to do their Facebook livestreams. The normies always stay at home to watch the Patriot soap opera. These people are disaffected civic nationalists. Even the Threepers understand that they aren’t normies. The III% is a reference to their belief that a tiny minority fought in the American Revolution.

It is worth observing here that the MOAR rally in Washington, DC drew about 200-300 people. The largest Patriot rally in memory in Houston, which was organized by Open Carry Texas, drew about 1,000 people. The crowd in Houston leaned heavily on gun enthusiasts and militias. In both Houston and DC, it was the same familiar set of Patriot groups, MAGApedes and Alt-Lite Kekistanis. These people aren’t drawing larger crowds than us with American flags and sincere Patriot rhetoric. In fact, MOAR was drastically outnumbered by the Juggalo March, the optics of which were, well, let’s just say had many shortcomings. The Juggalos more than made up for it though with passion and energy.

It’s hard to say which event was more cringe. I personally don’t think there is much energy left in civic nationalism. These events are a huge decline from the crowds of Baby Boomers that Glenn Beck managed to turn out at the Lincoln Memorial in 2010:

The most recent polls show that White Nationalists, Neo-Nazis and the Alt-Right constitute about 8 percent to 10 percent of the American population. This isn’t a bad showing. Pew’s surveys show that “Strong Conservatives” are only about 12 to 15 percent of the American population. We imagine that Middle American conservatives somewhere out there in the Heartland are this overwhelming majority, but that’s not the case at all anymore. “Business Conservatives,” the sort of people who vote for Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, are another 10 percent of the American population.

Basically, I think that using exclusively American flags at the events will only divide our coalition and depress turnout at events. It won’t attract normies or civic nationalists because the “racism” charge will still be effective. It won’t deter Antifa who will still come to engage in violence. It’s just going to discourage our own activists from showing up. If the Oathkeepers, Threepers and American Warrior Revolution can’t make it work, I doubt we can with a halfhearted effort.