The West has a plague of homegrown terrorists. True, their body count does not match that of Islamic extremists, but the ferocity of their attacks is of a kind. I’m talking about Antifa, an umbrella term for a loose collection of groups and individuals who process to be “anti fascist”. Oh, the irony!

The only problem with their self-given label (as with so many leftist self-given labels) is that they are the opposite. Antifa embody just about everything defining a fascist. The dictionary defines fascism as promoting nation and often race above individuals, standing for a centralised, autocratic government, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. Antifa aren’t strictly nationalistic, but rather socialistic, promoting the collective above individual liberty.

Contrastingly, there is very little in any of the victims of Antifa which resembles fascism. Sure, conservatives love our nation and think our governments should put our national interests ahead of other nations. This sensibly includes careful preservation of our own cultural distinctives so often sacrificed on the altar of multiculturalism, but that is not ultra-nationalism.

Nationalism is simply wanting for our grandchildren what our grandparents wanted for them: a sovereign nation free from interference by unelected foreign powers. We want appreciation of our history and collective achievements, neither denying nor obsessively focusing on our failures. We find cohesion in both active participation in and preservation of the laws and values which brought us thus far: our unique culture. At worst, nationalism says our culture is superior to all others, and we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Most immigrants agree, and have voted with their feet.

Ultra-nationalism goes beyond balanced nationalism and claims the individuals of a nation are superior to the individuals in any other nation simply by virtue of their nationality or race. I don’t know any conservative commentator or colleague who believes such garbage.

Far from a centralised government, conservatives (not fascists) commonly advocate federalism — the competition of the states. Contrasting with autocratic government, conservatives champion the smallest government and least regulation necessary. Conservatives generally prefer free markets instead of economic regulation, and social liberty instead of social regimentations such as enforced political correctness through the various para-judicial tribunals and commissions operating as thought police.

Most notably, conservatives personify the opposite of fascism with our strong advocacy of free speech, even when that speech is bad. If you asked me what single greatest change our Parliaments could make to increase personal liberty and freedom of speech in Australia, I would answer the abolition of the Human Rights Commission and the various state-based anti discrimination tribunals. These are tools of forcible suppression of opposition which real fascists should adore.

Despite Leftists screeching that white supremacists are in plague proportions in the West, only a handful actually turned up at the “Unite the Right 2” rally in Washington DC on the weekend. The real fascists, Antifa, were left to terrorise other individuals including media, unfortunate Trump supporters who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and even the police. A mainstream journalist on the scene reported that the cowardly and criminal, masked Antifa thugs went after just about anyone. Her Twitter timeline is full of video of the terrorists mobbing cops on motorbikes, throwing things at them, shoving and kicking at least one officer and his motorbike.

In Australia, the fascistic leftists were out in force during the debate about undefining marriage. In Brisbane they terrorised a bunch of elderly parishioners attending a parish finance meeting at a local church. A “Safe Schools” information session there had to be cancelled because of their threats of violence.

Antifa are frequently seen forcibly suppressing any opposition to their politics. They physically blocked 50 people from entering a venue in Melbourne last year who were wanting to listen to a distinguished paediatrician give a lecture on gender dysphoria. The police bureaucrats did nothing in response to this violence, claiming they were outnumbered by the mob.

A lot of extra police resources were needed to control the violent behaviour at what would have otherwise been peaceful events when Milo Yiannopoulos and Lauren Southern visited Australia. The extreme Left are fundamentally fascistic and resorted to violence to attempt to silence dissent.

An early advocate of fascism, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, observed that one of the few principles of fascism is that any type of questioning the status quo is not to be tolerated. If you do not conform with dictated ideas, even the most violent response is justified to prevent your evil ideas from even being heard by anyone else.

If that sounds familiar, it’s not because you’ve commonly heard anyone right of centre, let alone a conservative, say anything like it.

No, the violent Left are the real fascists: those uncivilised barbarians who refuse to protest peacefully and abide the laws, but demand their political agendas be imposed on all those who disagree. Their insatiable appetite for dictatorial power to control other people’s opinions, for social regimentation, for jack-booted suppression of opposing ideas and socialist control of the means of production bear all the hallmarks of 1940s Germany’s fascism, missing only its ultra-nationalism menacingly replaced by the other extreme of globalism.

If Antifa were really opposed to fascism they would behave entirely the opposite of how they usually do, and advocate conservative policies instead of authoritarianism. But the facts are irrelevant to them. The only reason the fascistic Left pretend to oppose fascism is because they seek to demonise rather than debate.

Two things happens when leftists call conservatives fascist. One, they undefine yet another word, as they have with “marriage” and “racist”. When a word means anything, it means nothing. Two, they remove all doubt of their wilful ignorance by personifying that which they claim to oppose.

Dave Pellowe promoted the recent speaking tour by Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux. Disgracefully, he was billed by Victoria Police for the protection needed to protect his speakers’ audiences from a violent mob