Protest Warrior
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Image:Protestwarrior.gif Protest Warrior is a right-wing political activist protest group. It is an international organization with mostly American members; its main focus is on the U.S. and Israel. The group was formed in 2003 by Alan Lipton and Kfir Alfia in Austin, Texas. Its slogan is "Fighting the left... doing it right".
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Motivation
Protest Warrior believes that left-wing politics and statism constitute a threat to the future of freedom and individualism, and would result in totalitarian police states. Seeing "liberals" (in the U.S. usage of the term) as morally and politically bankrupt and deserving of head-on confrontation, Protest Warrior believes that the voices of the left "are heard disproportionately, demoralizing our troops, and emboldening dictators around the world".[1]
Generally accepted ideas in the Protest Warrior community include support for the "Global War on Terror" and Operation Iraqi Freedom, opposition to Islamic fundamentalism as dangerous, threatening and oppressive, support for free enterprise and fiscally conservative economics, general support and respect for military institutions as the "defenders of freedom", and support for Israel.
Protest Warrior is generally characterized as pro-Bush in terms of foreign policy (namely the GWoT), although the Bush administration draws criticism from many members of the organization due to certain of its policies regarding immigration, the economy, and domestic security.
Methodology
The group's primary method of activism is infiltrating left-wing events, chiefly anti-war protest marches, and counter-demonstrating within their ranks. For instance, Protest Warriors have attended rallies against Halliburton, Caterpillar Inc., Israel, and George W. Bush, displaying support for these causes. When doing so, the Protest Warriors carry large signs often designed to appear similar to those held by the participants of the event they are crashing, enabling them to mingle until observers are close enough to read their signs' sarcastic fine-print.
After large operations, videos are posted to the website documenting the events. The videos include confrontations with other protesters and the unwelcoming, sometimes violent, reactions of those protesters. Protest Warriors claim that these videos demonstrate that anti-war protestors are hypocritical in their claims of being pro-peace (or anti-violence) and pro-free speech. In response, the protestors claim that the videos are carefully edited to show only footage favorable to Protest Warrior.
Reactions
Anti-war protestors who have come in contact with Protest Warrior usually have a negative reaction towards their signs. Those in agreement with Protest Warrior tend to find their signs and slogans humorous. Rush Limbaugh, a conservative talk-show host, once featured their signs on his Web site.
According to Indymedia's San Francisco affiliate, a group of Protest Warriors led by founder Kfir Alfia were the target of animosity at a conservative counter-Cindy Sheehan rally in Crawford, Texas. Despite the Protest Warriors' assurances that they were on the same side, the other protesters repeatedly shouted "Go home!", destroyed the Protest Warrior signs and forced the Protest Warriors to leave the rally, mistaking them for anti-war protestors.[2]
Website
Image:Alankfir.jpg The group maintains a website as an organizing and information hub. It also acts as a source for the many slogans and signs presented by Protest Warriors at protests, as well as offering various tutorials on sign creation. A shop is also run from the website, to help cover the costs of keeping the website and organisation running.
The active forums of Protest Warrior have a large selection of topics for discussion; the group prides itself on permitting people of any ideology to join in on the discussions. According to Protest Warriors, very few users have been banned, typically for posting obscene material such as pornography. During the release of the Protest Warrior video Liberty Rising, some users were banned in an emotional outburst for displaying negative feelings about the video. Protest Warrior claims that user moderation is unknown except for taking away signature and avatar privileges from those who violate the rules for them.