Ignorance is bliss when you’re sitting around a table talking about kooky violence in the world.
The ladies of ABC’s “The View” were in an orgasmic state of dimness Friday as they got all chatty about Antifa during “Hot Topics.”
Is it a plane, a phrase, a term, a group?
These ladies have no clue.
In the words of Hillary Clinton on Rex Tillerson‘s State Department on MSNBC’s ‘Rachel Maddow‘ show Thursday night, they don’t know what they don’t know.
But it’s not like you have to know anything to gab in “Hot Topics.”
Paula Faris knows more than the other dingbats. But even she doesn’t seem to grasp the realness of Antifa. She might do herself a favor and read the recent piece of “longform” journalism by The Weekly Standard‘s Matt Labash, who put himself in the thick of it in Berkeley.
“Yeah, it’s very kooky,” says Whoopi Goldberg, during her batty tirade in which she claims she has never heard of Antifa until recently and therefore it isn’t real and was only created as a response to President Trump.
So — ding! ding! ding! — it’s all Trump’s fault.
“But is he missing the point?” a female voice teases for “Hot Topics,” saying that Trump is doubling down on his “claim” that “both sides” are to blame for the violence in Charlottesville.
So let’s get this party started.
The only thing good about Friday’s episode is Farris’s beautiful red heels paired with blue jeans.
But let’s get back to the ladies pulling thoughts about Antifa out of their asses.
“This is one of those talking points where if you say it enough, it becomes real,” Whoopi says knowingly.
“Antifa, it’s anti-fascism…they are predicated on violence,” says Farris, who is immediately interrupted by Whoopi.
“There was nothing there,” says Whoopi, talking over Farris. “When you look at the bottom of their list, the year they are talking about is the year when Obama was in. So we went to see what Antifa was protesting. …And there isn’t any. There’s nothing there. We can’t find anything. So this to me — Antifa — is one of those things that somebody came up with as a catch phrase so that you could say oh there’s violence on the other side. But I don’t remember violent demonstrations before the gneltman whose in now got in.”
Farris politely said she didn’t get to her finish her point.
“I cut you off,” Whoopi says matter-of-factly.
“It’s alright though, I get it.That’s totally fine,” she replies.
Faris said according to confidential government docs, Antifa was labeled “domestic terrorist” group by the Dept. of Homeland Security in 2016.
Faris said she was terrified during a stop in Washington after the RNC in Cleveland: “I was frightened. We had to lock the restaurant we were in because they were knocking people over. they were burning things, attacking police, they were breaking the windows.”
Still, Faris said she had just heard of Antifa a few months ago.
“That’s what I’m talking…that’s my point. That’s my point,” says Whoopi.
This is when co-host Sunny Hostin grew furious.
“It doesn’t have a leader,” she said. “It doesn’t have a headquarters. It’s not an organized group. I do not think that you cannot compare this Antifa movement to the KKK. The KKK has been terrorizing my community for centuries. So this false equivalency is ridiculous. I really think if Donald Trump wants to say anything about racism he has to talk about his being complicit in that. …His campaign was for angry white people. …He needs to admit that he is the reason we are seeing this racial divide in this country.”
Whoopi reiterated that she had never heard of Antifa and really has no understanding of it now. “You can’t do this subtle scare,” she says. “The subtle scare is what that phrase is. That’s why I wanted to see because I had never heard of this.”
“I hadn’t either,” Sunny says, backing her up.
Whoopi continued, “I had never heard of this. …Often times I’ve found that sometimes the side that is kvetching the loudest has orchestrated this so they can bitch about it. So I’m not sure who was storming through through the streets.”
Sunny said her fear is that the term “Antifa” will be used to scare people from standing up against hate. “When is it wrong to stand up against hate?” she asked rhetorically, Karate chopping the table. “It is never ever wrong!”
Co-host Sara Haines blew the show’s entire point that the group has no leadership.
“I feel like these are people that are looking to cause trouble, that put a mask on and are just saying they are part of a cause without any philosophy,” she says. “This guy Scott Crow, a former Antifa organizer, said that hate speech is not free speech. …Violence plays into the hand, I think, but I don’t think it’s organized. These people are crazy, violent types.”
Whoopi summed up their conversation perfectly.
“Yeah, it’s very kooky,” she says.