November 4th Antifa Civil War

The November 4th Antifa Civil War conspiracy theory alleged that, on November 4th 2017, antifa members would have started an armed civil war in order to kill white people, depose Donald Trump, and implement authoritarian socialism. In short: Red Scare 3.0. The allegation was reported by the very trustworthy right-wing media outlets InfoWars, Gateway Pundit, WND, YourNewsWire, and PJ Media.
There were protests for November 4th planned by several far-left organizations that achieved substantial news coverage.Inside the Left’s Plans to Occupy TrumpThe Resistance Now: after Charlottesville, anger and action However, the planned protests were planned to be intentionally nonviolent., Snopes‘ANTIFA’ WAGING CIVIL WAR ON NOVEMBER 4, ACCORDING TO RIGHT WING CONSPIRACYNovember 4, 2017 Protests: 5 Fast Facts You Need to KnowGoogle ‘Top stories’ featured false news about rumored Antifa civil war
==Original material==
Refuse Fascism is a group who planned protests modeled around Occupy Wall Street for November 4th. Refuse Fascism was cofounded by Cornel West, member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Carl Dix, founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party. The group hopes that street marches will help oppose Donald Trump, who they describe as fascist. The group writes:August 19: Regional Conferences to Plan for November 4
The post continues in the same rhetoric, asking participants to protest in the streets day after day, day and night, until the "Trump/Pence Regime" is removed from power. In case it wasn't clear:
# This post is calling for civil disobedience, not violence or civil war;
# This organization has very little chance of achieving its goals
Indeed, as Liberty Conservative notes (amidst George Soros conspiracy-theorizing):
==Civil War 2017==
===Part 1: Molehill mountaineering===
Conservative media had a field day with the above material. Kookier headlines include:
*InfoWars:
:*First thoughts, it's a revolution: "GLOBALISTS PLANNING TO LAUNCH COMMUNIST REVOLUTION NOVEMBER 4TH"
:*Second thoughts, it's mass violence: "ANTIFA PLANS MASS VIOLENCE ON NOVEMBER 4TH"
:*But actually, it's a joke: "ANTIFA’S NOVEMBER 4TH REVOLUTION IS A JOKE"
*YourNewsWire:
:*"Antifa Planning ‘Day Of Bloody Violence’ This November 4th"
:*"Antifa Plan Civil War To ‘Overthrow Trump’ On Nov. 4"
:*"ANTIFA Plan Nationwide Riots On Nov. 4th To Forcibly Remove Trump"
*WND: "'ANTIFA' PREPS MASS UPRISING TO REMOVE 'FASCIST' TRUMP"
*PJ Media: "Communist Front Group 'Refuse Fascism' Plans Nov. 4 Revolution to Unseat Trump"
*Daily Presser: "ANTIFA Plans Nationwide Anarchy On November 4th"
*The New American "Antifa Planning Communist Revolution for America on November 4"
*Zero Hedge: "US Department of Defense (DOD) Plans Solar-Storm-Based National Blackout Drill During Antifa Protests in November" (mirrored by GlobalResearch)
The story was also covered by American Thinker, Canada Free Press, TruNews Liberty Conservative, TheLiberal.ie Catholic Online, Conservative Review, and NewsWars.
===Part 2: Humor is dead===
Unable to smell the scent of bullshit, Gateway Pundit author wrote:
For reference, alleged "ANTIFA leader" Tom Bloke's Twitter avatar is George Soros with bunny ears. Wintrich updated the article to really drive home that he didn't get the joke:
The article was widely mocked on liberal/left Twitter:
In contrast, Bill Mitchell and Ian Miles Cheong uncritically treated this as fact. Paul Joseph Watson claimed that "Newsweek Thinks It’s OK to Joke About Beheading White People", perhaps missing the point of the joke: that people like him are so crazy that they genuinely believe Antifa is pursuing civil war against white people. Krang T Nelson, kindly, let PJW know that "my boss, george soros, made me post this", to which PJW responded: "psssst.....It's OK to be white. 😎👏🏻".
===Irony===
Many of the anti-antifa articles slipped into the authoritarian personality of speaking against violence, while also encouraging violence against non-established authorities. The American Thinker wrote:
YourNewsWire writes:
Liberty Conservative wrote:
NewsWars, quoting a social media post, wrote:
The comments on WND include some lovely tidbits:
== See also ==
* November 3rd Seattle nuclear attack, the 2019 equivalent (with extra gematria on the side)
==Notes==
==References==
==External links==
*Google Trends for "November 4th Protest" and "November 4th Civil War"
Category:Alt-right
Category:Conspiracy theories
Category:Moral panics
Category:Propaganda