Protest Warrior

Protest Warrior is a Neo-conservative political activist group which engages in public protest displays of a Right-Wing bent. It is a worldwide organization, though its main focus is on the United States of America and Israel. The group was formed in 2003. The group's slogan is "Fighting the left... doing it right."

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 lead directly to fascism, Nazism and theocracy, and to totalitarian police states in general. 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 group is largely Christian Zionism, and anti-Islamic. Muslims are portrayed in what many see to be an offensive manner in both the groups signs, in their manifesto, and on the forum. This group also supports members of Kach, a Zionist origination operating in New York and Israel (Kach is illegal in Israel).

Stated purpose

Protest Warriors are now a common feature of large-scale protest demonstrations in the United States. Their stated purpose is to provide an alternative ideological viewpoint to that of left-wing anti-war protesters and organizers.

Methodology

The group has gained fame and notoriety by "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 movie 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. It's demonstrations have been known to bring out around 100 people on average during major conventions.

Protest Warriors often carry large signs with sarcastic or humorous messages, considered by some to be offensive. After large operations, videos are posted to the website documenting the events. The videos include "interviews" 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. Many feel that otherwise peaceful protesters are distressed by potent, extreme propaganda and actions displayed by the Protest Warriors. The signs carried by Protest Warriors are unanimously viewed to be inflammatory.

Website

The group maintains a website as an organizing and information hub. The website is often zealous and confrontational and, much like the Protest Warrior signs, uses humor and sarcasm to deliver the Protest Warrior message. Though the Protest Warriors have undoubtedly 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. The website introduction pretty much says it all:

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.

Forums

The active forums of Protest Warrior have a large selection of discussion and are split up into nine different sections based on category. These sections include a Command and Control forum where the members plan their missions, a Brain Trust forum where new slogans and ideas are hashed out, and the main forum - the Liberty forum. Unlike the Democratic Underground, Free Republic, and many other political forums which often ban posters who do not agree with their views, ProtestWarrior claims to welcome people of all political backgrounds to their forums to share their views, although Protest Warrior very frequently bans memebrs who oppose Protest Warriors extremist stance. Like Democratic Underground, Protest Warrior deletes topics and posts they find unfitting. Views held by extreme posters range from racist Jewish extremism to conspiracy theory.

A "HQ" section of the website is devoted to the organization of demonstrations via local chapters. Almost all large cities in the U.S. have active local chapters. In recent times, 'chapters' have also formed around the world, in countries such as Australia, Canada, England, and the Netherlands.

References

ProtestWarrior. Our Mission. Retrieved October 12, 2004.