Designating Dissent: The Tyrant with a Crayon

Donald Trump once blurted out – in that half-chewed syntax of his – that he wanted to “designate antifa a terrorist organisation.” Now, this isn’t a new line – he’s been flogging it since 2020 like a broken lawnmower he can’t start. But the stupidity of it still deserves our full attention. Because antifa isn’t an organisation. There are no meetings. No membership cards. No bank account. It’s a mindset – the idea that fascism ought to be opposed, not flirted with.

But of course, in Trumpworld, opposing fascism is the real threat. Not fascism itself.

This wasn’t about public safety – it was about criminalising opposition. If you don’t clap hard enough, you’re a terrorist. That’s how fascists behave. And that’s exactly what Trump is – a walking, rambling, slogan-spouting fascist – just with worse tailoring and a gold toilet.

And it didn’t stop there. Fast forward to 2025, and the U.S. Department of Justice has quietly deleted a government-funded report that showed the vast majority of domestic terrorist killings since 1990 were committed by far-right extremists. Over 520 deaths. Compared to 78 by the so-called far left. This was published by the National Institute of Justice, not the Guardian or Mother Jones. It was hard data. And when it didn’t suit the narrative, it disappeared – just after the death of Charlie Kirk, whose canonisation was already being written by the same grifters who profit off the culture war he spent his life inflaming.

This is what totalitarianism looks like in its early stages: 

• Not jackboots – just erased data. 
• Not gulags – just regulatory intimidation. 
• Not firebombs – just cancellation by executive whim.

And speaking of cancellation, let’s talk about Jimmy Kimmel.

Kimmel dared to repeat Trump’s own words back at him in a satirical monologue after Kirk’s death – and for that, his show was indefinitely pulled. The FCC chairman threatened networks with fines and license reviews. ABC and its syndication partners buckled. Trump celebrated like a man who thinks satire is treason and cancellation is patriotism. So much for free speech.

Meanwhile, over on Fox News, Brian Kilmeade – one of Trump’s favourite couch-warmers – suggested that mentally ill homeless people who refuse help should be given involuntary lethal injections. Let that sink in. That’s not a sick joke or a misquote. That’s a mainstream host on a top-rated network proposing state-sponsored murder for the inconvenient. There was no FCC threat. No pulled show. No cancellation. Just a half-hearted walk-back and then silence. Because apparently killing poor people for being mentally ill is just colourful opinion now.

And still, they bang on about "cancel culture." About how free speech is under threat from the left. As if universities and drag queens are more dangerous than federal agencies deleting terror stats and networks pulling comedians off-air for telling the truth.

It’s not free speech they want. It’s freedom from accountability. Freedom to lie. Freedom to abuse. Freedom to punch down while howling in outrage if someone dares to punch back. When a late-night comic is censored for quoting Trump, but a Fox host can call for lethal injections without consequence, America is no longer in a democracy. It's a regime of selective permission. Say the right thing – get a pass. Say the wrong thing – get the boot.

The hypocrisy is so thick you could trowel it onto a wall and call it a border.

And all the while, they point at antifa, like it’s the threat. A bunch of unorganised protesters in black hoodies are branded domestic terrorists, while armed militias shoot up synagogues and Capitol steps – and get called “patriots”.

Here’s the truth:

• If your government deletes facts to protect ideology, it’s not a democracy.
• If comedians are silenced but propagandists are protected, it’s not free speech.
• If opposing fascism makes you a terrorist, then fascism is already here.

This isn’t creep. It’s gallop. And too many are too busy waving flags to see that the Constitution is being pulped right under their noses – not with laws, but with pressure, silence, and fear.

And Musk has the sheer gall to say free speech in under threat in the UK - it has already disappeared in Trump's America.