Indiscriminately waving around a weapon in a crowded public space is illegal for a reason. I thought you guys were all about maintaining order in society at all cost? Idiot vigilantes hunting out idiot antifas is contrary to the order of society. Random violence does not suddenly become okay just because it's coming from your side.
I never said random violence was acceptable whatsoever, the reason you see people like BasedStickMan defending himself is because the police won't do jack stuff about Antifa (which if they did do something about it, these riots/protests where things are being destroyed would be dispersed in a short matter of time, but none of that is happening), it's only a matter of time before people get sick of it and stand up for themselves, rather then relying on a government force that
might help you out when you need it at rallies like these. If Antifa was peaceful and non-violent then there would be no people marching in armor wielding weapons, it's simple cause and effect.
It is absolutely indiscriminate though. Watch the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcGPTeUQkgM
At 1:53 he literally attempts to stab a woman for approaching him, and the only reason he doesn't hit her is because her boyfriend/brother/whatever pulls her away in time. This is not a person exercising their right to self-defense, it's an idiot ideologue looking to further his own political beliefs by threatening others with violence. In other words, he's literally just the Annoying Orange version of the antifa crowd.
I'm sorry what? How ignorant do you have to be to look at that and call it an "indiscriminate" action? Both the man and woman are yelling at this dude while approaching him, while the boyfriend has his fists ready to try and pummel this dude who is just trying to not get his stuff kicked out of him.
Take note of how in that clip, StickMan does not approach them or threaten them and is standing his ground, not moving, then they start to approach him in a hostile manner while shouting and screaming at him, in fact when they start to approach he even backs up a few steps, and when they finally get too close he jabs at them, and he didn't single out the weaker individual who is a woman, you can clearly see he jabs in between both of these people who are inches away from one another, because both of them are threatening him.
also the man and woman are
looking for a fight, he even puts his fists up to try and start something while StickMan is having none of it, and does not incite any violence while backing up even more,
this is not an indiscriminate action, these people were clearly looking for a fight, if it truly was an indiscriminate action we would be seeing this man approaching the opposing side, pushing and shoving others around hoping to start something, but he's not, in fact every single social cue/behavioral cue displays that he is truly just trying to defend himself, if he was attacking rather than defending, we would have seen him rush that guy in the clip, but lo and behold he didn't.
Or at 3:02, where he beats someone in the head, four feet away from him, who is clearly trying to dodge him? Does that count as self-defense too?
"Their side started it first" is not a valid defense when it comes to felony assault. You do not get to swing around a weapon in 'self-defense' because other people at other protests have gotten violent.
hey, we're missing some context here, let's look at what happened a few seconds prior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSnvcjm4WzIOh jeez, what is that? The man who was struck on the head willingly rushed into the scene with 4 others to try and harm that individual who was already being assaulted and got hit on the head for it? Man, he was really trying to dodge that one thing he never saw until it hit him!
and in other words what you're saying is
"If someone is threatening you and is hurting you, you are legally not allowed to defend yourself and must receive the damage"
or
"This person started to intrude and began harassing me, and defending myself is not allowed even if they began to incite violence on me"
that's some sketch stuff you're saying dude.
Actually, you can scratch the entire 'started it first' part. Regardless of all the past antifa bullstuff, if you go out into the streets, armed and intending to start a turf war with people who disagree with your political beliefs, you are by definition a rioter. And it's hilarious that people with your sorts of beliefs are suddenly praising rioters.
nonononononononononononon, stop, stop, stop,
stop.
You can not just completely disregard the context of the issue and just go "well if you arm yourself and go out into the streets it's wrong", you can not just ignore the cause and effect here, the only reason people have armed themselves is because of extremists like Antifa who only want to hurt others, if Antifa was an actually peaceful movement, none of this would be happening and civil discussions would be taking place, but if you're going to be in the same premises as a movement that in that specific area has made itself known to be legitimately violent and threatening to other peoples safety, you bet people are going to defend themselves and not take that stuff, there is no "oh they're no better they're trying to start stuff by dressing up", they wouldn't be dressing up in the first place if Antifa wasn't such a violent thing.
Saying "Regardless of the past antifa bullstuff" is an automatic and
huge contradiction, you can not throw that to the side, the entire relevancy of this situation revolves around what Antifa has done in the recent past, you can not disregard that whatsoever, and you're genuinely ignorant for trying to do so.
And the Annoying Orange supporters are somehow rioters now? I'm sorry what?
Rioters are people like Antifa who start to break windows, ATM's, and anything vulnerable to being destroyed near them, that is the behavior of a rioter.
But yet I haven't seen a lick of anyone during this entire event who are not affiliated with Antifa that goes out and willingly trashes city property, if BasedStickMan was a rioter, wouldn't he be damaging nearby windows and anything else destructible (which he never did any of)? And since when did I start praising rioters? Not once did I approve of riots or what takes place during those events. If you think that wanting to defend yourself and wanting to be safe is an act that inspires a riot, you are yet once more, insanely, absurdly ignorant.