Protest Warrior

Protest Warrior is a 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. The highly active 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."

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.

Protest Warriors often carry large signs with sarcastic or humorous messages. 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, often 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 welcomes people of all political backgrounds to their forums to share their views. Views held by some of the more extreme posters range from nationalist 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.

Notable moments

One of the more notable segments of Protest Warrior footage can be seen in their Crashing the Protests video, which shows an anti-war protester saying "if a dictator provides clean water for their people... if they provide free health care, I like that dictator. If he provides university and education for everyone, I like that dictator." This particular piece of footage did not go unnoticed by the makers of the new film Celsius 41.11, and a portion can be seen in the trailer for the upcoming movie.

References

ProtestWarrior. Our Mission. Retrieved October 12, 2004.