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Stanislav Vysotsky

@professorstas.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.2K following 178 posts

old punk. cranky academic. critical sociologist and criminologist. antifa and fascism scholar. author of American Antifa from Routledge and Antifa: What Everyone Needs to Know forthcoming on Oxford University Press. antifascismresearchnetwork.com

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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Just as an aside, the original title I proposed was Inside Antifa because it was meant to be an analysis of the movement from someone who had been active in it. More on that in an upcoming edited volume set to be published next year.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Meta uses a tired horseshoe theory argument to justify suppressing antifascist posts.
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Rita, antifascist🏴 @oldsquida.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
“They will call you a terrorist even if you comply. So why comply?” bsky.app/profile/crim...
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
So much of the discussion about antifa on the right is projection of their strategies onto the left. The right has billionaire financing, so the left must also. The right joins the military for training, so the left must also. Hopefully, this doesn’t go beyond grandstanding.
globalnews.ca
Conservative MP searches for ‘antifa’ in federal government, Canadian Armed Forces - National | Globalnews.ca
Federal departments and the Canadian Armed Forces must answer by April how many members of anti-fascist groups work for the public service and the military.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
This would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous. Of course there’s no leader of a decentralized, loosely networked political tendency; but the feds have been tasked with finding one, and no one is safe as long as they keep up their paranoid search.
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
"Trump and His Party Have Put Ilhan Omar in Danger for Years" The Minnesota congresswoman has weathered years of racist smears from Trump and his right-wing lackeys, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s attack on her. Zeteo has the receipts.
zeteo.com
Trump and His Party Have Put Ilhan Omar in Danger for Years
The Minnesota congresswoman has weathered years of racist smears from Trump and his right-wing lackeys, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s attack on her.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Over on that other fascist site, BC’s far-right party is trying the same antifa are terrorists narrative as their US compatriots.
Screenshot of tweet from the ONEBC party quote tweeting Dallas Brodie who is quote tweeting Cosmin Dzsurdzsa. 

ONEBC tweet says “ANTIFA is planning on attacking US targets in Canada and the Canadian government still cannot find a reason to list ANTIFA as terrorists.

They are terrorists!”

Brodie’s tweet says, “Canada must list ANTIFA as a terrorist organization. The fact that it has not been yet is worrying.

Are there ANTIFA sympathizers in the federal government?”

Dzsurdzsa’s tweet says, “BREAKING: Antifa cells in Canada are calling for “attacks” on US businesses & “riots” to spread terror over Maduro’s arrest

The call came from a Montreal-based cell and spread across affiliated sites. Ottawa has refused to label Antifa groups terror orgs” with a link to a Juno News story about supposed antifa calls for violence.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
This is just white nationalist rhetoric. This administration has moved from being fascist to straight up nazi.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
I wrote this summary of the criminalization of antifa. Labelling antifa as a terrorist group has major implications for repression of left-wing activism but doesn't seem to have much public support outside of the right-wing echo chamber.
helsinkinotebooks.com
The Criminalization of Antifa
In the wake of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, and in response to ongoing protests against snatch and grab raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, the Trump administrat…
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Elon's little serfs are quite literally begging journalists to come back because every publicly available source of data shows people have fled the platform and young people won't use it. They are literally begging regular people to come back. Don't do it! It is a website by and for actual Nazis!
An interview with Twitter's Chief Product Officer title "X Wants Its Haters Back"
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Pepper spray can cause serious harm to adults, let alone a one year old.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
The administration is willing to engage in extrajudicial killing of antifa activists and others on the left.
theintercept.com
White House Refuses to Rule Out Summary Executions of People on Its Secret Domestic Terrorist List
The Trump administration ignored questions about whether it would order the killings of those on its NSPM-7 list — even while answering our other queries.
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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
The way the word elites has become devoid of all meaning is interesting. It’s a placeholder for “someone I don’t like” and it fascinates me that the people who use it most are wealthy, went to “elite” schools and hold positions of power. Look in the damn mirror. You’re talking about yourself.
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Sam Menefee-Libey @sml47.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
People should take a page out of New School faculty's book and start doing forensic accounting for their own institutions using public documents
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 14/12/2025
Part of the Chanukah tradition is to place the light menorah either outside or in a window where outsiders can see it. This is supposed to advertise the miracle of Chanukah. These days, it is also a way of saying, “This is a Jewish home.” Every year I think about how it is also an act of bravery.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
From his defense of the free speech rights of Holocaust deniers to his more recent statements opposing antifa activism, Chomsky has been consistently wrong on fascism in its social movement form.
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Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
In case you have never seen this.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
They’re trying so hard to make antifa a terrorist threat because it gives them a broad brush to criminalize and persecute the left. They will go after locally based antifascist affinity groups to try to look like they’ve made progress on their threats.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
The DOJ is moving from vague threats against antifascists and the left to targeted persecution.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
This is indicative of how little these people actually know about antifa activism, but it’s still a dangerous open-ended method for persecuting antifascists and the left.
theguardian.com
Pam Bondi tells law enforcement agencies to investigate antifa groups for ‘tax crimes’
Move is part of Trump’s broader crackdown on leftwing groups, including designation of antifa as ‘domestic terrorism’ group
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Apparently, possessing anarchist zines makes someone “antifa.” Further proof that this is just a war on the left. The administration is going for more radical and marginalized activists before it turns its attention on more mainstream ones.
theintercept.com
The Feds Want to Make It Illegal to Even Possess an Anarchist Zine
Daniel Sanchez is facing federal charges for what free speech advocates say is a clear attack on the First Amendment.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Identifying fascists is a thorough, methodical, and verifiable process.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
The administration is going to have a hard time proving any link between domestic antifa groups and any of the networks listed in today’s designation, but that won’t stop them from bringing the full force of federal law enforcement against antifascists domestically.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
There seems to be no justification for how they determined any of these groups are foreign terrorist groups. And certainly no evidence that they have direct ties to any U.S. antifa groups. Just like with the rest of this antifa panic, they’re just randomly creating boogeymen.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Fascists tried to have a conference in Vancouver. It was infiltrated. Now, they’ve been identified.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
The conflation of movements in this excerpt is really troubling but not unexpected. This is the same logic of all counter-extremism thinking that lumps different movements and ideologies into one amorphous enemy.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 03/11/2025
Shapiro and Weiss seriously thought they could fan the flames of reactionary politics and it would spare them. Did they think they could spew racist and transphobic bigotry and it not end up growing into a monster that eventually came for them too? They made this bed for all of us.
Screenshot of a tweet from Bari Weiss saying “Must-watch.” It includes a tweet from Ben Shapiro that reads: “No to the groypers. No to cowards like Tucker Carlson, who normalize their trash. No to those who champion them. No to demoralization. No to bigotry and anti-meritocratic horseshit….” Below the text is an image of Ben Shapiro speaking during his show, wearing a navy blazer and white shirt, sitting at a desk with a microphone and a book titled The Authoritarian Moment visible. The timestamp on the video reads “41:23,” and the corner shows the logo “Ben Shapiro Show.”
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
This story speaks to the essence of antifascism as a form of self-defense. “The American left is armed and getting organized, not because it wants to wage war, but because it refuses to be an easy target.”
theintercept.com
Inside the World of Leftist Gun Nuts
Graham Platner’s firearms trainings are only the most public example of the left’s efforts to arm themselves.
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Ben Lorber @benlorber8.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Forget Monday's two-hour Tucker Carlson interview with Nick Fuentes-- this 2.5 minute video from the head of the Heritage Foundation just completely shattered the right-wing pro-Israel consensus. The leading MAGA organization welcomed antisemitism into the movement with open arms
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
The fascist movement in Canada is growing and becoming more militant.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Basic human decency is apparently material support for terrorism.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Support everyday antifascism.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with the fine folks at Yeah Nah Pasaran! about the repression of antifa in the U.S.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
This is what the administration’s war on antifa looks like on the ground. A dragnet of protesters in search of an organization and conspiracy.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Excellent critique of the CSIS claim that left-wing terrorism is on the rise and likely to outpace far-right violence.
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Open Measures @openmeasures.io · 21/10/2025
Narratives about "Antifa" were largely dormant for most of Trump's current term in office, even on alt-platforms popular with right-wing communities. That all changed when a gunman killed activist Charlie Kirk and federal officials rushed to blame the "radical left" openmeasures.io/antifa-narra...
openmeasures.io
Flash Report: Dormant ‘Antifa’ Narratives Resurrected After Executive Order - Open Measures
Wild claims and conspiracy theories about ‘radical left’ violence are generating renewed interest, raising risks for previously targeted individuals and organizations
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Rita, antifascist🏴 @oldsquida.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Five Steps to Building a Successful Anti-Racist Neighborhood Watch - a pdf from our own IGD 🖤
itsgoingdown.org
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wiley cope @wileycope.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Last week, I broke the story of how a Russian street fight promotion expanded into the US with help of neo-nazis from the Active Club network & Patriot Front. Streets Fight Club (SFC) has promoted no-rules, bare-knuckle fights on Instagram & YouTube while raising funds for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
August 6, 2025 post from the SFC Telegram channel showing a masked man in camouflage with an SFC patch posing next to a dirtbike. The post includes the hashtag #SFCFamily and a caption in Russian that translates to, “Well,do you understand Russian?”August 10, 2025 Instagram story from the SFC American account showing Tennessee Active Club member Thomas Grady posing with Graham Whitson of Patriot Front. Both are wearing SFC shirts and the caption reads, “ONLY WARS.”
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
“In the longer run, however, it is likely that this war on anti-fascism will backfire leading to a heightened profile for the movement and a deepening identification with its ideas and values among the broader populace.”
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hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Extolling nonviolence is a slap in the face to Black and brown people for whom change was impossible without violence. It’s a slap in the face when the US exists because of violence towards Black & brown people. The only reason some of y’all can claim nonviolence is because Marsha threw a brick.
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Whoa. Chicago mayor calls for a general strike; now we're talking www.huffpost.com/entry/chicag...
huffpost.com
Chicago Mayor Issues Defiant Call For A General Strike
It was an audacious proposal, given that the U.S. has never held a true, nationwide general strike.
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Catherine @cats75.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
theintercept.com/2025/10/17/a...
theintercept.com
“Antifa” Protesters Charged With Terrorism for Constitutionally Protected Activity
After a protest against ICE, federal prosecutors pursued guilt-by-association charges against two “antifa” protesters.
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hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Saying you are nonviolent will not protect you from the violence of the state. Saying you “don’t break the law” doesn’t matter when the law is whatever the state says it is. That’s not wisdom. At best, it’s naïveté. And being naive about this has killed more people than a bullet ever could.
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Stanislav Vysotsky @professorstas.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
For those people who think antifa activism is just punching nazis, a testament to antifascists’ role in getting people out of the far right.
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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 18/10/2025
Please support an O.G. Black antifascist being targeted by nazis and their ilk. Daryle Lamont Jenkins is an amazing guy and he's been fighting fascism for decades.
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Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 19/10/2025
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.
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Dr. Lisa Corrigan @drlisacorrigan.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
“So it looks like you’re flying a fighter jet and wearing a crown, but it turns out it’s really a bomber and the bombs are poops. You’re up there pooping on all the cities in America because you’re the king of America, and so of course you shit on it when it doesn’t behave. It’s high concept, sir.”
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