Historian Trevor Loudon releases “America Under Siege: Antifa”
Dangerous Documentaries’ release of Trevor Loudon’s “America Under Siege: Antifa” comes at a time when political violence and civil unrest are part of the daily American paradigm and the film does great work of getting to the bottom of why these anarchist communists are doing what they are doing.
There is a sense of tempered calm to this film almost immediately. The mood is sober and confident, but there is no lack of self-awareness. There is a cognizance present in the film that comes in the form of necessity and anxious consternation, and the atmosphere that pervades the picture is dripping in indignation. Loudon has put together a concise and morally unambiguous piece, which tackles some of the most concerning political quandaries that the Western world has seen in nearly forty years.
Featuring New Right figures like Lauren Southern, Gavin McInnes, and Jack Posobiec, Loudon’s film probes some of these active crusaders against Antifa to try and understand what drives the machine forward. Some of the conclusions, of which Loudon draws many throughout the production, end up pointing fingers directly back at Democratic Party leadership, financiers, and organizers. The major takeaway from the breakdown of the web of influence present in Loudon’s film should be that Antifa is well-funded, well-organized, and far more powerful than even the right wishes to accept.
Speaking on the state of Germany and their struggle with Antifa, the film depicts anti-fascist raids of homes and illustrates just how volatile Antifa have become in Europe. These Antifa entities have even seized German towns where local police cannot even setup a department for work due to the level of control Antifa has over the town. This type of insidious turpitude might make its way to the liberal enclaves that are currently active, like Berkeley, California, or Portland, Oregon, or even places as liberally controlled as New York City, where propagators of left-wing anarchism run the political dynamo.
There is a lingering question throughout the film that lurks below the surface: when is this violence going to come to a head? The question is not, on the surface, answerable, but the film depicts the situation America is in as grave, with Lauren Southern going so far as to point out the following:
“The conversation very quickly went from, ‘should we allow free speech?’ to ‘should we ban hate speech?’ to ‘should we respond to hate speech with violence?’ once the conversation has gotten to that point, there is no more capability for the right and left to communicate . . .”
In truth, this is one of the most powerful films you will watch about the rise of Antifa in the United States. The discourse throughout is one of penetrating insight and detailed understanding, and the messages conveyed are ones of patriotism, civil liberty, and freedom. At the crux of the street war that Antifa is waging is the notion of “free speech” and the painful reality is that so many on the right, and some on the left, are fighting for a constitutional right that we already were granted, while the left at large fights to take that right away, not just from us, but from themselves as well.
These are people who, as Loudon and company point out, want to be taken care of, want to be coddled, and want to have the very freedoms that have granted them the ability to demonstrate in the first place be taken away. Trevor Loudon and Dangerous Documentaries have put together one of the most riveting and exciting political documentaries of the year, and one that was most needed.
You can watch the film below here: