Protest Warrior
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Protest Warrior is a political activist group which engages in public protest with a right-wing viewpoint. It is a worldwide organization, though its main focus is on the United States of America and Israel. The group was formed in 2003 by Alan Lipton and Kfir Alfia in Austin, Texas. The group's slogan is "Fighting the left... doing it right."
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Ideology
Protest Warrior believes that left-wing politics and statism constitute a threat to the future of freedom and individualism, and that the left's ideas if taken to the extreme can lead to totalitarian police states. Seeing 'liberals' (in the United States usage of the term) as morally bankrupt and needing to be confronted head on, they feel that the voices of the left "are heard disproportionately, demoralizing our troops, and emboldening dictators around the world."
The stated purpose of the Protest Warriors is to provide an alternative ideological viewpoint to that of left-wing anti-war protesters and organizers.
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Methodology
The group's primary method of activism is "crashing" left-wing events and counter-demonstrating left-wing protests, actions that the group itself gives names such as Operation Eagle Strike, Operation Liberty Rising, and Operation Wolverines (a reference to the film Red Dawn). The group engages in protests of their own, often against what it considers to be organizations in support of terrorism in the USA and around the world.
Protest Warriors often carry large signs with sarcastic or mocking messages. After large operations, videos are posted to the website documenting the events. The videos include confrontations with protesters and the unwelcoming, sometimes violent, reactions of the protesters. Protest Warriors claim that these videos show the hypocrisy of the protesters in their claims to being pro-peace and pro-freedom of speech.
Those who conflict with the Protest Warriors generally see them as acting in a provoking or aggressive manner towards protestors, and that the Protest Warrior signs are offensive. Many feel that the Protest Warriors are deliberately confrontational and hostile to antagonize the otherwise peaceful protestors. Some see the Protest Warriors' criticism of Islam as bigoted.
Website
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The group maintains a website as an organizing and information hub. The website is often zealous and confrontational. Although though the Protest Warriors have been influenced by the right-wing website Free Republic, slogans such as "Saddam only killed his own people.. it was none of our business" and "Communism has only killed 100 million people... let's give it another chance" clearly set them apart in both style and attitude. A motto from the website:
- Welcome to ProtestWarrior.com, a website created to help arm the liberty-loving Silent Majority with ammo -- ammo that strikes at the intellectual solar plexus of the Left.
The active forums of Protest Warrior have a large selection of topics for discussion; the group prides itself on permitting people of any ideology to join in on the discussions, provided that they do not threaten the perceived moral and intellectual integrity of the Protest Warrior founders.
External links
- Official Protest Warrior Site (http://www.protestwarrior.com/)
- Protest Warrior Forums (http://forum.protestwarrior.com)
- MSNBC: "Partisan Protesters" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5699723/site/newsweek)
- Washington Times: "Protest Warriors fuel rage on left" (http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040824-115347-4386r.htm)
- Right and Right (http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/fult_2004-08-19.cfm)
- Protest Warrior Exposed! (http://www.rocknrev.com/pw/protestwarrior.html)