Right, but that makes it pretty much impossible to stop anyone from claiming to be antifa or anyone accusing someone of being antifa... a lot of people will accuse anyone who is doing anything they don't like as being antifa
I live in Portland. I've met many people that label themselves antifa. They're just protestors that are willing to be a little more aggro. That's literally it.
So when people talk about antifa as if it was the left wing equivalent of Osama Bin Laden's terror network, it's a self report they're forming their views based on strawman style propaganda, not engaging with the reality of it.
Theres no organisation but they are well organised in a distributed sense. Horizontally, theres lots of tradecraft and opsec details that get spread around to help people fight. Thing is, theres no central pillar you can break to stop that spread.
What gets me is how right wing protesters specifically eschew good opsec. "mask off rallys", visible tattoos etc. They love the police state and then look like idiots when that big police state they demanded rounds them up with absolute ease because they took selfies with their swastikas out during a protest.
eeeeeh comment requires some nuance tbh. I can think of enough examples. And there are rightish elements of a lot of movements that get slammed.
I think its more hubris than anything. Even right wing protesters who love the government have enemies that could hurt them. Opsec isnt conditional on the opposition being the government.
Is this the part where people list of left wing regimes and you sort them into "Actually did nothing wrong" and "They became right wing so it doesnt count"
That's a pretty weird and ultimately boring place to live.
There is no antifa "organization". It is not centralized, there is no "leadership" or anyone in charge. It's more of a philosophy.