Antifa’s granny-bullying is another hit to the group’s crumbling public facade

By now, several million people have seen the video of Antifa bullying an elderly woman crossing the road with a walker outside of a Maxime Bernier and Dave Rubin event in Hamilton. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the footage again for good measure:

Of course, any clearheaded person with some empathy will immediately react to this incident with disgust and outrage. However, Antifa members themselves, along with those sympathetic to their cause have opted instead to justify their actions, or at the very least downplay the credibility of what took place.

One freelance journalist, Alheli Picazo, who admittedly isn’t herself an Antifa fan, immediately took to casting doubt over whether the innocent woman’s vicious harassment was “pre-planned,” asking her followers to doubt its veracity. The CBC reported the story as fact the following day.

Also, that ThinGrayLine account is one which directly followed (and interacted with and boosted) Shaun Walker – the PPC's most recent neo-Nazi to be ousted.— Alheli Picazo (@a_picazo) September 30, 2019

Of course, Picazo was unclear on what specific part of this incident might have been orchestrated: Was the grandma a plant sent to walk directly into the jeering thugs? Or perhaps the four masked hoodlums were paid provocateurs? Maybe both?

Without evidence, the assumption is mere conjecture and more telling of a kind of ideological blindness willing to give a pass to the misbehaviour of those on your side of the political spectrum.

In another instance, Evan Balgord, of Anti-Hate Canada, who previously unsuccessfully lobbied the venue to shut its doors on the event which featured a gay man and an immigrant for alleged racism, pleaded with anti-fascists to be “media aware” and lamented the fact that the granny-bullies ruined the occasion for the rest of the protestors.

The truth is, every mass protest movement is vulnerable, especially when it’s structure is decentralized. The threat of self-sabotage, lethargy, infiltration, or the lack of leadership means that any such group will make mistakes, and in the recent past, Antifa has made many.

As covered extensively by The Post Millennial and others, Antifa has a long history of violence, property destruction, and general thuggery both in Canada and elsewhere. Their targets have not only been defenceless old ladies but journalists, members of the public and even those sympathetic to their cause.

Some of the biggest hits to Antifa’s feigned moral superiority have happened this year. For example, earlier this year, journalist Andy Ngo was violently and repeatedly assaulted by Antifa in a Portland rally while simply performing his journalistic duties. The assault led to Ngo’s hospitalization and resulted in brain injuries.

After the assault took place, journalists sympathetic to the far-left group mocked and even lauded the physical violence against Ngo, simply because he held ideas and beliefs they disagreed with.

To understand the selective blindness of those on board with the collective program of these far-left extremists, you must understand the notion of militancy. Any movement that conceives of itself as militant is willing to overlook collateral damage. In this instance, the collateral damage was a senior citizen simply wishing to go on their merry way.

Not only have Antifa’s successes been far fewer than they like to admit, but institutions and individuals have also adapted to the favoured harrassment tactics of the black bloc. Cancelling doesn’t seem to work anymore, venues are willing to stand by their bookings, and even left-leaning mainstream news outlets like the CNN have denounced the group.

The average person is far too busy to go about their day to take Antifa seriously or to join in such a cause, and when they see the group threatening the safety of its streets and the most vulnerable of its citizens, Antifa is beginning to look no different than the extremists they allegedly oppose.