Weekly Insurgency 11/25/2020 Addendum
Fixed links, antifa hiding riot footage via copyright abuse
*Sorry for the glitch with the links, I’m resending this with them corrected as well as an update on antifa’s current tactic of using DMCA takedown notices to remove incriminating footage and some info on downloading/archival methods as well as fair use exceptions*
Welcome to the Contextual Insurgent Project by writer, analyst, and activist Erin Smith.
This is your Contextual Insurgent weekly roundup, where I link you to a selection of the previous week’s previous notable events/articles/tweets and contextualize them with a short analysis drawn from a synthesis of hands-on experience and theoretical knowledge.
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Antifa Removing Riot Footage via Copyright Strikes:
An entire summer of rioting in the midst of the social media era has flooded the internet with thousands of hours of incriminating footage, and the hard left is belatedly adapting to this fact in at least two ways. The first is by a renewed focus on discouraging/intimidating livestreamers and unaffiliated media from embedding with street actions, the second is filing DMCA takedown notices against footage shared by third parties. It’s important that this footage stay available for public record, so I want to give you some quick tips on how to download and preserve this information as well as point you in the direction of resources that may help you better conform to ‘Fair Use’ exemptions to copyright law.
For starters, I personally use (and recommend) the Video DownloadHelper plugin for Firefox. Y2mate is an excellent choice, as well as 4k Video Downloader. Some options for Twitter are SaveTweetVid and GetMyTweet.
To minimize copyright issues/takedown actions when posting, I would suggest trimming the video to the absolute minimum needed and include commentary, and note you claim “fair use”. If you use a diagrammed screenshot instead and/or have video editing software and add text and “speed ramp” the footage to illustrate something, even better. IANAL (I am not a lawyer) but the general idea is that the more you “transform” the footage for commentary/critique (especially if you don’t monetize it) the greater your chances for skating on a fair use claim.
Fair Use Explained By a Lawyer
Last week’s podcasts:
Episode 9 is a deep dive into the Montgomery bus boycott, detailing the planning, training, and organization that went into pulling it off.
Episode 9: Courage is Not Enough
Episode 10 is a review episode, where I summarize the previous 9 episodes and distill a series of important lessons about activism, organizing, and building for political power. I also discuss some adjustments I’ll be making, and give a peek at upcoming podcast topics. Expect a greater emphasis on concrete actions items and guidance for you to get involved with your local community.
Episode 10: Season 1 in review
2020 Election:
Touching base on the election results, Republicans won 27 of 27 tossup-rated races, as well as “likely Democratic” FL-27 by knocking out incumbent Donna Shalala. Polling gave absolutely no warning of this, a further illustrates the interaction between the deeply flawed models and garbage data being collected from a populace much more averse to submitting to questioning, and more likely to give wrong answers when they do.
Lawsuits around the POTUS results are still ongoing, but however it turns out I think it’s unlikely the controversy around election integrity goes away. I gave a longer explanation around some of the biggest issues in last week’s roundup, but essentially I only seeing this problem getting worse as polarization grows and social trust plummets.
A HuffingPaintPost story earlier this year took a trip down the rabbithole of e-voting systems and the public-private revolving door, it’s a fascinating story:
Antifa:
Antifa’s operational competence continues to grow. This past week armed and unarmed antifa groups responded to oppose a Stop The Steal rally in Atlanta GA, and the open coordination between them and combined tactics we noted over the summer at locations like Seattle’s CHAZ only improves.
At the end of this video you see the antifa shield wall advancing, note the discipline and plastic curved shields. Last week I explained the different types of shields, and how these are overall a more versatile design than the flat wooden designs.
At the end you see an armed antifa member in multicam position the shield wall, there are several things to note here. Firstly, age: he’s older than what most have come to expect from antifa members you find in the streets, and he’s carrying an expensive SCAR-H; this is likely someone who’s successful and established in his community. He’s also wearing a front-mounted tourniquet and radio, and his plate carrier has a hydration pouch. Also note the red handkerchief: if you see an armed militia person at an event, look for something red -like a red scarf or handkerchief- to tell if the person is a leftist. Another tell is the red “we will tread” patch on his left arm in the bottom pic, which seems to be growing in popularity.
In my tactics chapter for the CSP’s book on Antifa, I discussed a developing combined arms tactic between armed and unarmed factions I tentatively labeled “Push-Hold”. Essentially the presence of an armed contingent allows unarmed antifa members to engage in moderate-intensity melee tactics against their target to clear a space, while raising the potential cost of escalation for the opposition for retaking it. This worked at CHAZ/CHOP for a bit, until the shootings and violence gave city government the political cover they needed to enter the zone and close it down.
Center For Security Policy: Unmasking Antifa
I also wrote about armed antifa groups -specifically Puget Sound John Brown Club- last year, warning about the growing sophistication and organization among armed antifa groups. Less than a week after this first piece was published, PSJBGC member Willem Van Spronson attacked the Tacoma ICE facility.
Leftists Arm Themselves as They Escalate Violence
Post-Tacoma followup:
Warning about Antifa’s Escalating Violence Comes True…And it Will Get Worse
That’s it for this roundup, Have a happy Thanksgiving!
Also use this site for You Tube to mp3 converter
https://en.y2mate.ac