Proud Boys are a National Political Violence Gang.

Political Thugs. GOP-endorsed, Republican Party-approved fascist thugs.

Another MAGA March

On December 12th, 2020, thousands of Trump supporters showed up in Washington, D.C., again, this time to support Donald Trump in his moments of failure. In regards to the Electoral College, electors meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. That’s December 14th, 2020. This right-wing rally in Washington is only after weeks of electoral suppression-intimidation from Donald Trump and his Republican acolytes. His attempt to cheat democratic systems long after voter suppression-intimidation has failed.

When democracy stops serving conservatism, conservatives will not abandon conservativism — conservatives will abandon democracy.

Thousands of Trump supporters showed up in Washington, D.C.

Sweet racist old white ladies struck again, smiling, with a pathologically ignorant sweetness that would put Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory to shame.

“All Lives Matter, you know?” “That has to be proven, ma’am.” Baffling silence molested her tongue, as words feared leaving her mouth after saying that phrase within my presence.

Her silence? A dear cousin to the Silence Black people receives in regards to Justice speaking in our United States.

Many of them, of course, were random persons and families who want to merely believe. Many were regular Americans who wanted to believe what Trump says, “the vote was rigged. Voter fraud. He won but was cheated. Unfair.”

Of course, many Trump supporters continue to take Trump’s word as gospel, believing the lies as truth. Others were only there for the moment. When I saw one guy with a “stop the steal” sign, I asked him:

Johnny S: “Hey, do you really think he didn’t lose OR are you just living in the spirit of the moment?”

Trumpian: “Just the spirit of the moment!”

As bold as Trumpians are, I have no reason to doubt his answer. It would be fair to say that not all literally believe Trump’s lies and are here in Washington, D.C. for the moment. Still, he supports Trump’s assault on democracy, however tacit his endorsement is.

The very fact that some know Trump is lying yet co-sign his every move here might be more frightening than the true believers.

Knowledge is knowing Frankenstein isn’t really the name of the monster; it’s the name of the scientist. Wisdom is knowing who the real monster is — the freaking scientist, playing with unnatural things, reanimating the dead.

Thousands of Americans showed up in D.C. to reanimate the dead.

Proud Boys in D.C.

There were numerous political violence gangs in Washington on the 12th. Many were Three Percenters. The more prominent gang, however, were the Proud Boys. In wearing their colors, which seems to appropriate the original colors of Black Lives Matter — black and yellow — I estimated roughly 600+ Proud Boys were in the District of Colombia. I might be wrong, that’s how estimates are, but it is still a lot.

Proud Boys (PB), while having national leadership, seems to be a charter-based organization, which leaves various chapters to have their own personalities. The branches seem to be state-based, as all those from the same state sought the most uniformity among themselves and stuck to their groups as if they were companies or platoons in military order.

The uniformity among chapters can get creative. New Hamshire Proud Boys, for example, all were yellow quilts (and wearing quilts properly, if you know the meaning). Some had the Cobra Kai logo modified for their use. Proud Boys all wore black and yellow and varied between polo shirts and printed t-shirts.

Some had various patches that indicate a ranking system, such as “RWDS,” which stands for “Right Wing Death Squad.” Others indicated which Degree they were, such as 4th Degree. I’ll touch on these later.

During the daytime, Proud Boys were surprisingly friendly (might be the fact that I’m a military vet). I believe that Proud Boys love military vets for the same reason all other right-wing violence/terrorism groups do — the pre-existing experience of killing, self-discipline, and violence, expert knowledge of leadership, insurgency, and warfare.

I assess that the Proud Boys were very friendly (during daytime hours), ultimately due to an understanding of how important public relations (PR) are for fascism. As even the United States Army has a Public Affairs office, it makes sense that the PB were cognizant of public appearance as not to embarrass their name and title while for many cameras were rolling.

In asking various Proud Boys questions, remarkably, they agree with Black Lives Matter protesters and organizers as individuals. A few questions I asked:

Do you believe that the police should be able to shoot me (Black person), murder me, blow my brains out, kill me, and skate/evade the law?

Do you believe that the police should be able to murder me (Black person) with immunity to law and proper accountability?

Suppose I (Black person) were to be unjustly murdered by a police officer. Should that police officer be able to not only evade law and justice but became a crowd-sourced millionaire due to murdering me?

Should police murder an innocent person and then demonize that innocent person by citing possible past criminal occurrences that has nothing to do with the murderous police encounter?

All Proud Boy affiliates answered these questions, passing the racial justice quiz with flying colors. The crazy part? I genuinely have no reason to doubt their answers. Each one I asked, really do not believe police should have the ability to kill unjustly, and then keep their career, evade law, or stack money like racial bounties.

The underlying problem here is that most of the American public is unwilling to engage in critical thinking to evaluate the organization concerning these topics because most would prefer to obfuscate the individual identity with the group’s identity. Bob or Mike, who happens to be a Proud Boy, doesn’t stand in for the group identity who explicitly aims for street violence with whomever they deem their enemies.

Let’s Talk About their Designated Enemies

“F*** ANTIFA!!!” is a rallying cry of Proud Boys, something I heard a lot of, yelled in unison at Freedom Plaza where the main MAGA rally took place.

As President Trump took causes towards many fake, counterfeit, nonreal designated enemies (such as nonexistent caravans, objective media platforms, or Black athletes and other civil rights protesters), so does Proud Boys. “ANTIFA” is the primary designated enemy of the state, according to Proud Boys and modern American conservative lore.

I cannot pretend their designation of threat hold merit; ANTIFA is short for anti-fascism or anti-fascist, and from there, any person who opened up a socio-psychology book understands that negative identities are not real identities. Thus, anti-fascism — which is a position on fascism — exists only because fascism exists.

If you get rid of fascism — the stuff that Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpians are doing — then anti-fascism ceases to exist. That’s how negative identities work. Negative identities do not exist in a void; they need something to bank off of, run counter to. Kind of like how counter-terrorism exists only because terrorism exists. If terrorism ceases to exist, so does counter-terrorism. Anti-smoking campaigns only exist because smoking exists. If there’s no smoking, then anti-smoking campaigns cease to exist. Need I go on, or you get it now? Good. It’s not that hard to understand.

ANTIFA is not a group to the extent to which conservatives and Proud Boys describe. There is no leadership, no funding, no political figures validating punching Nazis or fascists in the face (which can be interpreted as a damning conviction of American politics itself). I find a strange pattern in conservative media (which is effectively conservative disinformation consumption). There’s a preference for specific names and titles that rob the meaning from something and then demonize what is named. For example, in calling the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare,” conservatives diminish the actual policy’s purpose, attach a different meaning to attack and demonize, and work from there. The propaganda tactic dilutes, silences, obscures and renders invisible real, actual meanings of things only to immediately anathematize them. The same proves true in infinitely calling anything concerning anti-fascism “ANTIFA.” In not saying anti-fascism, the logical understanding of “being against fascism” is obscured. This is also why many republicans, Trumpians, and other conservatives can say (albeit with profound ignorance), “ANTIFA is the real fascists,” without blinking.

This propaganda tactic is technically a poisoning the well fallacy. Poisoning the well (a smear tactic in political theater) is a rhetorical tactic and logical fallacy that uses the association of negative emotions to distract a subject from actual evidence in an argument, in this case, a fact of how one exists. As an Argumentum ad hominem fallacy attacks the person, the functionality of poisoning the well is that of a landmine; step in position, and the explosion kills you. In this case, it is killing logic and reason. Poisoning the well is also an appeal to hate.

ANTIFA, much like all of which Trump designates as threats and enemies for his cult following, is a fake threat. Not real or genuine. It’s one big strawman argument.

To even give ANTIFA an identity in its black-clad glory, it’s all just a bunch of college-aged folk who care about democracy, care about people, care about America. Many are squishy non-combative people who don’t roid-rage or train to exist as a militia, as Proud Boys do. Most are in college with knowledge of what late-stage capitalism means. Some are anarchists, who don’t care for order, group identity, or leadership at all. It’s a fake threat. As much as I hate to use this word, it is correct to state that Anti-fascism as a literal, credible threat to the United States is a hoax.

The concept of Black Lives Matter to the Proud Boys is nearly just as simple; any Black protester. As a matter of fact, from Proud Boys, it pretty much goes like this:

•Black protester = BLM

•White Protester = ANTIFA

There’s no collective grasp of what these group identities really are. Just abbreviated propagandized think, with minor doublespeak concerning Black Lives Matter, being that on an individual level, one can extract logical grasp of police abuse of authority, monopoly of violence, and lack of accountability. Emphasis on the distinction between individual personal identities of few Proud Boys versus the collective group identity of the Proud Boys as a whole.

Facts on Proud Boys as a Gang

There are Four levels in their gang:

● 1st Degree: Publicly declaring yourself a Proud Boy. ● 2nd Degree: Getting jumped by other members until you name five kinds of breakfast cereal. This degree also includes a vow to stop, or cut down on masturbating. ● 3rd Degree: Getting a Proud Boy tattoo. ● 4th Degree: Engaging in actual physical violence with ANTIFA.

If you look at the fourth degree and observe the fact that it’s the highest rank, on top of the fact that 600+ were in Washingtion D.C., one can deduce the possibility of hundreds of men of a political violence gang visiting D.C., begging and trying their hardest to fight anyone wearing black that day. That happened here in Washington D.C. on the December 12th, 2020.

I’m not sure if one can become a 4th degree PB prior to the tattoo or other stages. I’m not sure if one can skip stages. I’ll ask next time.

The African Elephant in the Room

There’s utility in being a Black conservative that simply does not exist for white conservatives. ~ Johnny S., 14 Oct 2020

I cannot go on about my observations without pointing at the Black, African elephant in the room — Black and other nonwhite men co-signed and deputized into an American fascist movement.

I will have to say that there were many Black and nonwhite Proud Boys at the rally, which I’d estimate over 600 members in attendance. There were so many Black Proud Boys that they were technically no one of any significance. They were not some moderately well-known token Black guy with Candace Owens-sized platforms; they were regular, unknown jobber-level members, invisible to national political theatre. To put it into perspective, in terms of proportion, there were more Black Proud Boys than there are Republican Black members of Congress or Senate.

Much of my analysis on Black conservatives have been well documented. Please read prior written work on the matter to have a firm idea of what follows:

Black conservatives as pundits function as white supremacy ventriloquy; they perform as Black bodies that the more racially ignorant white people can live vicariously through. ~ Johnny S., 14 Oct 2020

If Black conservative pundits serve as white supremacy ventriloquy, Black conservatives deputized into white fascist organizations serve as toy soldiers, action figures, pawns. One of the main goals of white supremacy is to place white people in a position of not doing the work. White supremacy and fascism is also work; therefore, there is space for Black bodies to exist.

Black bodies exist in fascism, to punch down upon other Black bodies, that is. That is how colonialism works. That is how fascism works. That is how white supremacy works. White supremacy is ecstatic to see nonwhites serve the purpose of white supremacy. That, is the whole point of it.

Black conservatives…are weaponized Black bodies aimed at not only attacking Black and white progressives, but to also deflect from valid criticism of racism. Because of this specialized position within the conservative white supremacist milieu, the Black conservative…actually feel more powerful than their white counterparts. This is significant, because there’s a sense of power involved with being and doing something better than whites even with a white supremacist power structure. ~ Johnny S., 14 Oct 2020

This very fact is the reason why Erique Tarrio exists as the leader of the Proud Boys. The Black best friend to American fascism.

I did not observe any Black Proud Boys who are 4th Degree (meaning they engaged in street fights). That doesn’t mean they do not exist, however. As we observed with Black police officers, a Black Proud Boy may actually fight harder than a white one due to the uphill battle of a minority trying to fit in. As Black cops and black military professionals can be deputized into white supremacy and fascism, the same proves true for a national political violence gang. Being of white supremacy does not mean you have to be white literally. One can be deputized into white supremacy. White supremacy is an ideology, not a person or race of people. No one should be left confused after knowing this when they see the next Black body co-signing white supremacy.

Proud Boys are just another violent gang

Proud Boys, and other white-identity extremists who stack weapons and dress like Call of Duty cosplayers, are just another gang. Yes, another gang. We as Americans need to stop calling these types militia; they are a gang.

We can call them gangsters, maybe. Thugs. Hoodlums.

But not militia. They are not militia. A public militia is technically against the law in every state in America. The National Guard is technically a functioning militia in legal terms. Proud Boys are a gang.

Look, as a man from the hood, North East Washington D.C. — I know a gang when I see one. That’s a gang. Just because they have “political” interests, it doesn’t change the fact they are a damn street gang. The fact that the Proud Boys aren’t inherently, on a national level, tied to a drug trade (yet) doesn’t subtract from the fact that they are a gang. Proud Boys showing up, pulling “security” for various Republican interests is technically no different than if they used MS13 members, Bloods or Crips. If MS13, Bloods, or Crips leadership got frequent shoutouts from a sitting president, were told to stand back and stand by from a sitting Commander in Chief, they too would be at political rallies, enjoying this mainstream political validation.

Proud Boys have ritual jump-in initiations for adrenalin control, just like regular street gangs. Proud Boys have tattoos with meaning, just like traditional street gangs. Violence towards targeted people of their choosing means promotion, just like regular street gangs. Proud Boys wear specific colors as a uniform, just like traditional street gangs. Proud Boys have hand gestures and symbols, just like regular, American street gangs. They may be a signature gang dance to discover next; I’ll ask next time. There might be a PB walk; who knows. The mainstream political validation doesn’t change the fact that they are nothing but a political-violence-oriented national street gang.

This is a street gang, ladies and gentlemen. Do not let the politics involved fool you. This is Republican Party-authorized, government sanctioned American gang violence activity.

Conclusion

The marauding street gang known as the Proud Boys in Washington D.C., out of all the muscle and big men you see, are a sad set of people. All I see is white fragility. Even when I see Black PB, I know the intentionality behind their existence and see white fragility. All I see is fear of a nation changing, shifting. Capitalism is unsustainable; white supremacy is untenable. What follows next is the unknown, and the unknown can be scary to those who latch onto things like presumed white authority, white defaultness, patriarchy, and capitalism. Many of these men are cowards. Documented on various photos and videos are Proud Boys attacking men smaller than they are, non-combative people minding their own business, and women. And they usually attack three to one, or five to one. They attempt to stab people (due to the hyper-strict gun laws in the District). Some bring guns into the city anyway. Proud Boys are cowards, and it needs to be said. They go after “Antifa” which are small, diminutive, squishy college kids, with many being teenagers. They attack Black women and explicitly go after property to destroy.

“Both sides hate you now!” ~ Proud Boys yelling at D.C. Metro PD, as they separated the visiting political violence group Proud Boys from the local DMV residents.

So much for the police-tolerant, right.

Let’s also point out that Proud Boys on December 12th only patrolled the gentrified areas on Washington D.C. They hung around the White House, Freedom Plaza. They didn’t dare venture east of Union Station, for example, where actual D.C. residents live. Proud Boys went around majority white, gentrified locations and downtown architecture looking for Black Lives Matter signs to tear down and burn, but feared going where actual Black lives are. Proud Boys, who hold a slogan “FAFO” (fuck around and find out), genuinely did not want to find out about Anacostia, Trinidad, or Carver-Langston. They didn’t want to see Barry Farm or Naylor Gardens. Fuck around and find out? Indeed.

Gangs, cowards, cult members and losers. That’s all they are.

Just like their cult leader idol, Donald Trump. The problem however, is that the idol can be elected out of political power, and was. An election doesn’t eradicate a political-violence-oriented street gang.

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