Mass Live has a pretty important bit of news reporting on the recent to-do from Wednesday night’s Red Sox vs. Athletics baseball game, at Fenway Park in Boston. During the fourth inning of the night game, three people unfurled a very large sign over the historic “Green Monster” wall in left field that read “Racism Is as American as Baseball.” In all honesty, when this was sent around the interwebs, it was very hard to understand what exactly the point of the protest was: was this saying that racism was bad and ingrained in our national consciousness? Was this some white nationalist outfit promoting racism as something that was good because it was American? WEEI and other traditional media outlets reported on Thursday that a Boston Antifa group took credit for the protest. WEEI has conveniently pulled down the post without an update or retraction. Why have they pulled it down?
The actual protesters who hung the banner denied any connection to Boston Antifa in an interview with CSNNE. And the people behind the social media pages do not actually believe the things they say -- because they are a pair of anti-leftist pranksters from Oregon who started Boston Antifa as a parody of actual anti-fascist groups.
Brandon and Alexis, whose Antifa characters "Dustin" and "Quinn" opine on subjects like how fidget spinners can trigger PTSD in hurricane victims, said as much last April in an interview with right-wing media personality Gavin McInnes.
Calling these two right-wing asshats “pranksters,” gives the impression these kids are like … “pranksters.” Here is a video of the “humorous” group saying that Friday’s London bombing is a “false flag” operation by pro-Trump forces. Hilarious. I can’t start laughing enough. The Boston Globe also explains how this group has gotten a lot of right-wing help with exposure by right-wing nutjob Gavin McInnes.
In April, controversial right-wing personality, Gavin McInnes interviewed a couple said to be behind the group, in a segment called “Fun with fake ‘Antifa’ pranksters! Guests: @AntifaBoston.”
“There has been a tsunami of fake Antifa Twitter accounts and even videos,” McInnes said. “We spoke to one such group, first as their alter-egos ‘Boston Antifa,’ and then as themselves.”
McInnes is an “alt right” white supremacist who began a group called “The Proud Boys,” whose “pride” seems to reside in them being racist-snowflakes. These dickheads aren’t satirists. They’re propaganda opportunists.
Monday, Sep 18, 2017 · 5:23:50 PM +00:00
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Walter Einenkel
There has been some confusion with this diary and clearly … I was not clear enough.
1) A protest took place at Fenway Park during a baseball game.
2) A group calling itself “Boston Antifa” claimed they were behind the protest. Traditional media outlets reported it that way.
3) It turns out that a) “Boston Antifa” is really a bunch of right wing opportunists, and b) they had nothing to do with what was a anti-racism protest conducted by a small group of people unaffiliated with any Antifa group.
I hope that clarifies it. I stick to my opinion that while the protest had a good message, that message was slightly ambiguous in today’s climate.
