I have been utterly confused with all the shortened versions of extremist group names. My eyes are hurting as I try to focus on which group is fighting in those crowds.

What I see is ‘everyone’ fighting; not just one group, but all of them hitting, punching, beating each other in the streets under the guise of rights.

Who are all these groups? What are they saying that we need to hear? 

Let’s start with Antifa.

Antifa is short for ‘anti-fascist’ they track neo-Nazis groups. This group has no leader and started in Europe and has been around for decades. They hide under the definition of Anti-Racist-Action.

Here is CNN’s definition of Antifa: “Antifa positions can be hard to define, but many members support oppressed populations and protest the amassing of wealth by corporations and elites. Some employ radical or militant tactics to get their message across.”

Antifa will show up at someone else’s permitted protest. They will wear black and masks, cause property damage and be very violent. But- they don’t see themselves as violent- only practicing ‘self-defense’.

Who are Leftists the Alt-left.

Here is the  definition on urbandictionary.com  “1) People who ban other’s freedom of speech because they feel ‘uncomfortable’ hearing different opinions.”

I also found on Wikipedia that this term was coined in 2016 as the opposite of Alt-right.

The Alt-left  are “…groups, outlets, or individuals who were perceived as being critical of President-elect Donald Trump.”   And “…as a disparaging term used by moderate and conservative Democrats against progressives and others to their ideological left.”

Progressives and Liberals these two differ according to the HuffingtonPost at HuffPost The Blog 

Progressives try to get the government to force big businesses ‘to play by a set of rules.’ 

While Liberals focus on ‘using taxpayer money to better society.’

The term Alt-left was described as ‘pejorative neologism’ which is how Alt-left’s name came about. What that tongue twister means-it is a made up word for the times. The definition of neologism from Merriam-Webster

Neologism is “… a new word that is coined especially by a person affected with schizophrenia and is meaningless except to the coiner, and is typically a combination of two existing words or a shortening or distortion of an existing word”

And Pejorative means: “a word or phrase that has negative connotations” a word …” that is intended to disparage or belittle”

Who are the Alt- Right?

Here is the definition of Alt-Right from the ‘The New York Times’

“The “Alt-right” is a racist, far-right movement based on an ideology of white nationalism and anti-Semitism.”

I break in here to repeat a tweet I sent out: No matter our #ethnicities we R all members of the same race decedents of an individual called Mitochondrial Eve which means weR all cousins. 

Let’s not leave out the Alt-Light:

This group broke off from the Alt-Right because they didn’t agree with ‘all ‘the issues of racism and anti-Semitism, just some of them. {{Sounds like ‘sort of‘ pregnant}}

There are more phrases and words tossed out to hurt feelings and make people angry, I will not list them here. I found a ridiculous amount of combination of words from all sides. So many sticks and stones being thrown.

Why did I write this? Because I wanted to understand those hyphenated names.

What did I learn?    That I want cake- a large sheet cake just like Tina Fey ate on SNL.