Politics

Dartmouth scholar: Antifa violence ‘ethically justifiable and strategically effective’

On Monday, Campus Reform reported that Mark Bray, a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College who describes himself as a “historian of human rights, terrorism, and political radicalism in Modern Europe,” has repeatedly defended Antifa’s use of violence in response to white supremacist organizations.

“Physical violence against white supremacists is both ethically justifiable and strategically effective,” he said in a Washington Post op-ed.

Campus Reform added:

That same day, Bray appeared on Democracy Now! to explain that “anti-fascists view their struggle as trans-national and trans-historical,” since their lineage can be traced “to Italian opposition to Mussolini’s Blackshirts, [and] German opposition to Hitler’s Brownshirts.”

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

During that appearance, Bray maintained that Americans must emulate such groups, saying “clearly we can see that rational discourse and debate was insufficient” during the rise of European fascism in the first half of the twentieth century.

“Clearly we can see that the mechanisms of parliamentary government were insufficient,” he stated. “We need to be able to come up with a way to say…‘By any means necessary, this can never happen again.’”

Bray concluded by encouraging viewers to “give up on the liberal notion” of “a regime of rights” that allows individuals to voice Nazi beliefs and reiterated his view that American white supremacists are “an enemy to humanity that needs to be stopped by any means necessary.”

Translation: No First Amendment rights for those who hold certain views.

According to Bray, “self-defense” in the face of “white supremacy and neo-Nazi violence” is a “legitimate response,” Campus Reform said, citing statements he made during a debate with Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Cohen disagreed, arguing that “it’s a spectacularly bad idea to give one group of people the right to silence another group of people,” and suggested that doing so could escalate the violence.

Antifa, as we noted earlier, has made it clear that it is not interested in “self-defense,” but seeks to implement what it calls “anarcho-Communism.”  And it has no problem with using violence to achieve its goal of overthrowing the government.

A statement provided to Campus Reform by Dartmouth read:

“Recent statements made by Lecturer in History Mark Bray supporting violent protest do not represent the views of Dartmouth. As an institution, we condemn anything but civil discourse in the exchange of opinions and ideas. Dartmouth embraces free speech and open inquiry in all matters, and all on our campus enjoy the freedom to speak, write, listen, and debate in pursuit of better learning and understanding; however, the endorsement of violence in any form is contrary to Dartmouth values.”

Then why is Bray still teaching at Dartmouth?

Related:

If you haven’t checked out and liked our Facebook page, please go here and do so.

And if you’re as concerned about online censorship as we are, go here and order this book:

Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad
Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad – Source: Author (used with permission)

Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

Related Articles

Our Privacy Policy has been updated to support the latest regulations.Click to learn more.×