Smash MAGA! Trump Zombie Apocalypse
Battle the Conventions in New Smash MAGA "Twilight of Empire" Update
It is the Twilight of Empire… and the dawn of a new era. Escalations on new terrains have opened up the fight for liberation; a new threat against the waning death rattles of all order gains momentum. But the Trump Virus infected fascist hordes have again made an electoral putsch against the equally desperate and dystopian Neoliberal police state. Both parties have already made everyone their enemies and their inevitable downfall when they gambled with our lives in their endless civil wars and colonial massacres. Unfathomable loss, accelerated apocalypse, a climate collapsed. But another end of the world was possible: a movement arises to meet the demands of the mad moment. We know only one future exists: a future without borders, without classes or nations, where the land is returned and healed by the people who love the land.
CONVENTION CRASHERS
There is a spectre haunting the country - the spectre of democracy! While the fascist MAGA Zombies have consolidated their party and once again rallied around a flailing, half-dead Trump, the Neolibs have exposed themselves to be genocidal imperialists at core, caving to and aligning with the fascists instead of meeting the needs of the people they seek to rule. And now they are hosting their jingoistic spectacles, a charade, a circus, a coronation for their champions in major cities they have locked down under Martial Law. They say it is the final election, the most important vote ever. But that is a threat backed by violence, a claim to eternal occupation under autocracy, a glimmer of the future they seek to impose. But the people are not only Uncommitted, they are dedicated to tearing down this facsimile of democracy, the illusion of choice. Protesters have been building momentum against the machinations of empire in the form of decentralized anarchy everywhere: disruptions, direct action, encampments, mutual aid, dual power. People are tired of the symbolic marches that give more power to the simulacrum; instead, underground networks have been activated to answer the call for increased activity!
And it is finally the day of the conventions, when pig forces make their big announcement…..will it be the dissolution of the “great american experiment” in favor of a fascist future, or will the neolibs triangulate and pacify the masses in acceptance of a soft kill reform? Only one thing is certain, this shithole country is so cooked!
MAD MAGA
Worsening climate collapse has spurred far-right actors to call for a Convoy to Collapse, an accelerationist mass of oil-guzzling vehicular rampagers, destroying what little nature is left in pursuit of their endless super-freeway- One Last Lane, they say. And anyone who stands in their way will feel the flame. MAGA is MAD as HELL! But the people are not going to take it anymore! Land and water defenders have been making plans to wreck the onslaught of chuds and truckers, stop the desertification and regrow the forest! See you on the other side of this randomized endless highway to climate hell, comrade!
ANOTHER INSURRECTION IS POSSIBLE
The final election was claimed victorious by the reformist parties, but the fascists zombified mobs literally ate the brains of all the toothless liberal tendencies, who predictably ended up acquiescing to MAGA!. With Trump being declared Dictator for ALL days, declaring democracy as dead as his biggest supporters, the Left has no choice but to unite against this monster. We are all Antifa now! And it is up to us to smash this fascist coup! What happens next is anyone’s guess, but the future will be written by those willing to fight- and when we say never again, we mean right here and right now! It’s time to Storm the Capitol, this time, from the Left!
SMASH TO THE FUTURE
The aftermaths of the insurrections and revolutions of the 21st century left a vacuum that aspiring tech overlords exploited to exert power over all of society. The future was handed over to automation, and this sleeping giant reigned supreme for a thousand years, leaving people dormant, pacified, dependent, and confused. The numbers are rising but our humanity worsens from a joyless neo-feudal existence, so propagandized through the retro-neon hypnotic promises of a luxury gay space communism that never panned out… Basic needs are met, but genuine experiences and meaning have enshittified- people now has less autonomy and freedom than ever before, this might even be the fucking matrix… But people are ready to wipe the futurist nostalgic garbage off the face of the planet, that is, before the machine’s plans to expand their operating systems to all corners of the known universe through the spacefaring MAGA X program goes online, operated by the direct descendents of Musk and Trump’s great great great great test-tube grandchildren. The thing is, hackers have already found a vulnerability, and although Earth seems to be a lost cause in this timeline, we can prevent the fascist virus from escaping the ruin it has created before it brings the disease to other worlds!
New "Defend The Forest" Level for Smash MAGA!
Their fascist ecocidal ambitions now laid bare, establishment forces seek to build Cop City, the largest police “training center” in the country, situated on top of the largest forest within an urban area. This pig playground has plans to include weapons and explosives testing, a mock city in which to simulate battles with resistant civilians, and would train cops from departments across the nation (‘outside agitators’). Cop City is the end-game of late stage capitalism: their response to the glaring contradictions and growing unrest is to drop the veneer of democracy and double down on the repression, culminating in these militarized cop city feudal empires to maintain their racist classist status quo well into an apocalyptic climate collapsed dystopian future.
This vision could not be more clearly demonstrated by the overwhelming repression of those fighting to defend the forest, including the murder of our comrade Tortuguita and the bogus arrests of over 45 protesters who are now facing draconian “domestic terror” charges. But despite mass repression, the movement continues to grow and evolve: using an ecosystem of tactics, forest defenders have made serious setbacks to the Cop City project. The future is unwritten: our collective survival will be determined by those willing to fight. Defend the Earth by any means necessary! Abolish the police and Stop Cop City!
For this level, we introduce a few new elements to the classic Smash MAGA! Riot and Rally arcade action!
Earth-Rippers – these clear-cutting deforesters are modeled after the land-rippers of Lutzerath. They have one goal – kill all trees! A few bricks or molotovs will take out these anti-life tech monstrosities.
B3 Bombers – Thanks to bipartisan imperialism, the state is now in possession of a fleet of billion-dollar drone-operated nuclear stealth bombers, and utilizing them in targeted operations against the protesters. If you see signs of an impending drone strike, RUN!
Tree-Sitters – Comrades are occupying the trees and giving themselves a vantage point in which to best resist the encroaching police menace! Hidden all over the forest, land defenders are at the forefront of struggle for climate revolution!
Defend The Forest is an antifascist action-packed rally-and-riot crowd-brawling tower-defense experience that can only be matched by going out and participating in real-world struggles against environmental encroachment. Stop Cop City Everywhere! Check these collectives and websites for more info on the Stop Cop City movement, find comrades in your area, and get active!
https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/
https://atlpresscollective.com/
https://atlsolidarity.org/
“Civil War” Expansion for Smash MAGA Trump Zombie Apocalypse Released
Free! Play now on Mac OS, Windows, Linux, Android and iPhone!
After the failed coup, the forces of the Trump virus lingered and spread a new wave of propaganda to reanimate the zombified hordes. Grifting ignorance and hate, right-wing chaos agents mainstream the scapegoating of the vulnerable and marginalized, creating an era of stochastic terror. Vigilante assaults on public institutions erodes healthcare and education, the right to abortion was the first to go in a Christian nationalist putsch.
Meanwhile, the Neoliberals wanted to normalize the crises. Content with letting the left drain their resources battling the undead fascists in the streets, the Neolibs triangulate and expand the militarization of the police with automation and hyper-technology to maintain their rule and geopolitical power.
Dystopian authoritarianism accelerates climate collapse. Animal populations disappear, entire towns and lakes evaporate, perennial fires and hurricanes make survival untenable. Misanthropy spreads as conditions worsened unevenly. Billions more thrown into poverty and desperation; world leaders choose sides in future wars.
An emergency election is held, and both parties lose. Without a majority or plurality, the internal contradictions prove too great for democracy to hold together the diverging realities. Ubiquitous political violence escalates to larger skirmishes, regional conflicts spread to global theaters. MAGA secedes under a familiar banner and makes the first strike… Civil War returns in the age of nuclear fascism.
Listen to Smash MAGA Developers on Twin Trouble podcast
Also appearing in this podcast is Gabriella Coleman, esteemed Harvard professor and historian of Anonymous, as well as Manilo and Paul of the hardcore band La Armada, whose music is featured throughout the episode.
Listen on SoundCloud now
Jason:
We are living in a dark age of disinformation. Formerly pro-establishment, the so-called patriots have ripped open up a parallel universe where they lose all faith in their country and engage in open rebellion. They are Anti-System now, fresh after licking Trump’s boot. We’ve seen the Big Lie, the stop the steal coup attempt, the failed insurrection, now were in the midst of the far-rights pivot to defy the vaccine and mask mandates, in which they see as proof of Biden’s tyranny and a worthy battleground for these wannabe civil war secession types.
Jeremy:
But the pivot is based on a conspiracy theory and a terribly deadly lie, that this virus is not a big deal, it’s COVID denialism. Antivax propagandists spread misinfo and cause people to not trust legitimate medical information, refuse life-saving vaccinations, and thus extending the pandemic and contributing to mass death. Even the biggest denialist Trump himself has been begging his supporters to take the vaccine because he wants to claim that it was his idea. But his base supporters are in too deep now and don’t wanna hear about that shit, so now the GOP can’t mention the vaccine without potential political blowback from their radicalized base.
We could be having conversations about basic information and best practices to resist plague, coming up with reasonable solutions for society to safely function, addressing global vaccine inequities, but instead we argue with the cult of ignorance over basic truths to the virus. So many of the antivax culture warriors are volatile, eager for a soapbox, eager to livestream themselves getting kicked out of restaurants by cops they claim to support. They say they feel like they’re being treated like second class citizens, insultingly comparing their struggles to that of the civil rights movement, saying the mandates are like racial segregation and apartheid. They compare the unvaccinated to the victims of the mass murderers of the holocaust under the Nazis. They say this with a straight face as they rail against the teaching of actual history and current reality of racism in America. They say My Body My Choice about vaccines and simultaneously want to end Roe v Wade. They talk about electoral integrity while meanwhile the GOP using these very conspiracy theories pushing harder than ever to further erode voting rights, with many states passing racist laws designed to prevent people from voting, all in plain sight. This mindfuckingly offensive upside-downedness signifies that the problems in this country run deeper than just what happened on Jan 6.
Jason:
But Neoliberalism also is on the same spectrum of denialism, also committed to apocalypse capitalism, with the rush to “go back to normal”, ending pandemic relief and ushering everyone back to work and school amidst the Omicron surge. The sociopathic lack of empathy is also exemplified by this growing belief that the pandemic will last forever and we should get used to it. That the new variant is ‘only mild’. It’s fine, it is only the most vulnerable who are affected by this new variant. The loss of life was always in the economic calculus inherent to the logic of capitalism, there exists a level of disease and death that is to be acceptable. So we’re not forgetting the Dems complete failure to handle the pandemic response adequately to the magnitude demanded of the moment, they are kicking people to the curb as well.
We are glad to see people rejecting and resisting apocalypse capitalism. Particularly moving recently are the CPS students in Chicago who have walked out of classes for their rights to a safe education during COVID times. This is an inspiring sign that the kids are alright, despite this city which continues to fail them with massive funding for cops and not for schools, and forcing in-person classes despite the teachers and students struggling for the continuation of remote learning during the surge of the Omicron variant.
Jeremy:
Others, however, seem to be working to help spread the plague: these foaming at-their-infectious-mouth antivaxxers, these MAGA zombies have not given up the fight. Just listen:
(GHASTLY RENDITION OF US NATIONAL ANTHEM)
Jason:
You are listening to the sounds of Jan 6 capitol rioters singing the US national anthem in the so-called “patriot wing” of the DC jail. Haunting! Apparently in a cult-like fashion, they sing it every night at 9, and according to MTG, they sing with “such passion and true devotion for their country, you can hear it in their voice”.
She, Matt Gaetz, and other pro-insurrection GOP lawmakers had visited the imprisoned insurrectionists in a publicity stunt to rally support for Jan 6 “political prisoners”, as they call them, who they claim are suffering abuse in a “two tiered justice system”
Earlier this month was the anniversary of the jan 6th right wing-coup attempt, and as fallout from that fateful day is still ongoing, we reflect on the significance of the attack on congress to overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s insurrection failed that day, but the violent white supremacist extremism in which Trumpism is a symptom of remains as a constantly looming fascist plague that haunts the country.
The same people who went on a rampage over the election at the end of 2020 and at Jan 6 continue to wreak havoc and now have “gone local”, pivoting to harassing school board over mask and vaccine mandates, causing disruptions, even sometimes at health care facilities, demanding Ivermectin and making death threats, complaining about being discriminated against for their “medical status” being denied service, all while denying the realities of COVID as we are in the midst of the surge. As we enter the midterm election year, the likelihood of far-right mobilizations and insurgent violence remains higher now than ever before.
Since Jan 6, right-wing media has done everything they can to minimize the significance of the attack. They first tried to deny the whole thing was MAGA, saying it was antifa infiltrators. Then they tried claiming it was an FBI setup, then it was merely a group of tourists, and finally the whataboutisms, making a false equivalency between the capitol rioters and the George Floyd uprisings of the summer, the latter they claim was far worse. “Entire cities burned!”, they cried.
But it was Trump who whipped up his fascist supporters into a frenzy and after the election they came out in droves to DC. Jan 6 came on the heels of the “Million Maga Marches”, practice runs for Jan 6. Of course it’s numbers were more like in the ten of thousands, but they were fucking fascists who were very open about their plans for violence. Proud Boys, self-proclaimed “militia”, the “army for Trump” they marched each evening and attacked people in the street and terrorized the city and country. Similar rallies had also been happening at state capitols as well: each night was inches from becoming deadly, yet it was only after Jan 6 did the DOJ say their priority is to investigate and prosecute these white supremacist extremist groups.
Jeremy:
Around 750 individuals so far have been charged by the feds for participating in the capitol riots, many low-level misdemeanors like “parading on restricted grounds”, but there were also hundreds of felonies, including assaults against police, interruption of federal official processes, and most recently conspiracy and sedition in the cases of Stewart Rhodes and 10 other members of the Oathkeeper militias. 350 felonies, but almost everybody, except like forty people, are out of jail: most were granted bail, or already had their cases adjudicated. Many have already accepted cooperating plea deals. Almost everybody got extremely light sentences, such as probation or a month or two in jail. Only a few have received any real time, the most so far is Robert Palmer, who got five years for beating a cop with a fire extinguisher, and then there’s the QAnon Shaman Jake Chansley who got 40 months, he’s at the low FCI Safford. There’s still other cases pending, and some of the more serious and complicated conspiracy charges could drag out for some time, in what they have called the largest federal investigation in US history.
Jason:
While the pawns have taken some heat, the architects of the jan 6 coup attempt continue to skirt accountability. The Jan 6th committee is finally getting around to issuing subpoenas for Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Nick Fuentes, and others high profile leaders and propagandists of the Big Lie. Trump and his closest minions have so-far refused the subpoenas and dragging it out in the courts, filing lawsuits against releases of information, and slamming the Jan 6th commission on investigation as a “Marxist witch-hunt”. He is still out there still saying he won in 2020 while he and the GOP are plotting the next coup in 2024. None of them have spent a day in jail for their crimes, and probably won’t.
Jeremy:
And all these Trump officials refusing the subpoenas, you know they lock people up all the time for contempt. Hell I did an extra six months for contempt, really a year, as we’ve talked about in earlier episodes. So it’s like, what the hell? It’s infuriating to see these powerful, horrible people just get away with this, like fascist horror show Steven Bannon, who was pardoned by Trump after scamming millions on that racist border wall, so now he’s got two criminal contempt charges, but they let him out on bail, and you know when any of us had asked for bail they’re like well that would undermine the coercive purpose of detaining you for contempt. Bannon’s trial’s still like half a year away. All of them, just walking around like it wasn’t nothing, and the Jan Sixers too, nearly all of them got bail or probation, never saw jail. And there’s just so many examples of the gross disparities with how Trump’s crew, how the January 6 insurrectionaries have been treated so lightly as compared with how most others experience the criminal justice system – which is to say, when it’s us, if there is any way to interpret or manipulate the law to be against us, the worst case scenario, that’s what’s happening. But here they are, basically cashing in on the full benefits of white privilege, and their political connections to those in power.
Jason:
One thing we have seen over Jan 6 is the cry from the right about so-called “political prisoners” of Jan 6. Much can be said about the imprisoned insurrectionists’ complaints about conditions in the jail. Much liberal knee-jerk reaction is to say “Lock em up! They deserve every ounce of misery they get!” While relishing in the irony of Back The Blue’s “don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time” is momentarily amusing, nobody should be sourcing their pleasure in the suffering of our enemies by the prison system. This is the rub we want to get into – What is the abolitionist perspective in regards to Jan 6 prosecutions?
Jeremy:
Prison abolitionists have consistently held that police and prisons aren’t ever solutions, that they need to be shut down immediately, that everybody needs to be freed unconditionally. We aren’t with “Lock Them Up!”, as much as we may detest their politics or actions. It’s actually a little worrisome that these liberals are looking for catharsis or revenge or closure or whatever through imprisonment. And how often have they also argued the same for us? So we’ve got to beat back the liberal lust for carceral solutions.
Jason:
The enemy of our enemy is not our friend – and central to anarchist, antifascist, or any kind of organizing is the refusal to work with or rely on the state to solve our problems. The punitive act of incarceration is an act of harm itself, and instead of keeping people safe, it destabilizes the community. Has imprisoning a few of the rioters prevented those on the outside from engaging in the same kind of violent agitation that we’ve seen on jan 6? Maybe in the immediate aftermath, but here we are a year later, Proud Boys are still regular fixtures of right-wing mobilizations, the violence continues, likely to increase as we enter midterm election year.
Jeremy:
And look at how they’re rallying behind January 6 defendants as heroes, patriots, political prisoners. There’s a lot of websites, “Patriot Freedom Project”, “Citizens Against Political Persecution”, “American Gulag”- that one run by Jim Hoft founder of alt-right disinfo site “The Gateway Pundit”, these are support sites for Jan Sixers, plus the hundreds of fundraisers on GiveSendGo.com, the Christian fascist alternative to GoFundMe. They’re like, “It’s shocking to say, but America now has legitimately political prisoners, en masse”, as if the government is somehow targeting them for their politics or race, as if their murderous fascist coup attempt is some great political act worthy of defending. to defend as say raising millions and millions of dollars, definitely some grifting going on. So they’re trying to gain sympathy about their cases, their jail conditions, while at the same time making sure to spit out their delusional belief that BLM was supposedly treated so lightly by comparison. Basically, their grievances and analysis extends only to freedom and better conditions for their own, the fascist warrior clowns that Trump used up and kicked to the curb. They don’t ever speak up for others affected by the prison industrial complex. They deny the existence of actual political prisoners and prisoners of war. They defend the cops every single time they get away with murder, or defend people like Kyle Rittenhouse, who basically fulfilled their blood lust fantasies.
So after they’ve riled up their most rabid Trump cultists to throw their sore loser riot at the capitol, and a few of them end up in jail, now they want to cry persecution, they want special treatment unlike the other “criminals” who they believe deserve to be in prison. They believe they are the exceptions, really hitting home the point that the prison system was from the beginning never designed for people like them. And so it’s understandable why some would find enjoyment and poetic justice in seeing the tables turned for a change. These Jan 6ers, majority middle upper class cis white men of privilege, they’re just now experiencing a taste of what everybody else had always been subjected to, had to eat the same baloney sandwiches we all had to eat. and they’re crying, writing manifestos from jail, “this isn’t what America is about!” Really tho? People have been fighting against that notorious DC Jail forever, and now, only when these special right wingers, these white people start complaining about it, the government felt like it had to do something to address their astroturfed fury.
So last month the US Marshals did an unannounced inspection of the DC Jail, and found they we’re in not in compliance with the minimum detention standards. First off – there’s never an “unannounced” inspection, obviously, they’re always scheduled and carefully choreographed. the inspectors are good friends with the warden, they’re often former wardens themselves, they’ll already have repainted the walls, already have lined up several bootlicking inmates if they want to question anybody, they’ll just rubber-stamp the process, make themselves look good – the dog and pony show. Anyways, I’m very familiar with the US Marshals detention standards – stuff like, square footage per person, number of toilets showers and sinks, food conditions, access to hygiene, recreation, medical care, etc. So there’s like fifty thousand federal prisoners, mostly pretrial or in transit, currently held outside of the Bureau of Prisons in these raggedy county jail and detention centers, and they’re really terrible places, basically none of them follow the standards, and it’s only gotten worse since pandemic. I remember two summers ago during the height of COVID they suspended all transfers, and we were stuck in transit in Oklahoma City, not the FTC but the local overflow jail in Grady Countyl, and it was just the worst place to be caught during the pandemic, dorms of triple stacked bunks, they were in staunch denial that COVID had completely swept the dorms, and people were trying to get lawyers and congress to look at these obvious detention standard violations, we got no traction, no answers, so literally everybody caught COVID, people died. People are still dying, and it’s like this everywhere, because the prison system is simply unable and unwilling to protect people, even three years into the pandemic, and we still haven’t seen the mass releases that people have been demanding, that are so urgently needed.
So when I read the statements of these Jan Sixers, once you get past the rhetoric, most of their complaints are really kind of basic jail conditions, for example, bad food, or the 23 hour a day lockdown. And I don’t mean to say this to trivialize the conditions people are complaining about, because we’ve experienced it ourselves, and it is terrible, and it all needs to end. But you don’t see them interested in advocating for prisoners rights as a whole. They’re not linking up with existing abolitionist groups, of course, or demanding an end to solitary confinement. They’re not going on hunger strike in solidarity with those at Rikers Island, or Stateville or in Palestine.
Jason:
Really, it’s because they support these systems, “law and order”, they’re part of it. It’s an anomaly that any of them are in jail at all, which is what they really mean when they claim they’re being discriminated against for “being conservative” or “being white”. Most of them used to just getting away with shit, their crimes are the officially sanctioned ones, done in the name of business. In actuality with the millions of dollars raised and support from high profile backers, they have so much more power, influence, and protection than everyone else, not just when it comes to how their cases are being handled in the courts, but also in the prisons themselves. Prison administrators are going to treat them very carefully to avoid retaliatory lawsuits and public attention. There’s been some claims that individual guards have insulted them for being white or whatever, one guy claims he was beaten by guards because he was trying to start a bible study group, supposedly, but it sounds like there’s more to that story then they’re letting on. I’d bet many prison guards are supporters!
Jeremy:
So with all their connection and influence, with support from people like MTG, they finally got the Marshals to admit that the jail is a dump, and they immediately began moving four hundred people into the federal prison in Lewisburg PA. But hilariously, the inspectors actually found that the treatment unit that most of the Jan Sixers are being held at, was actually in compliance with the standards, was actually in far better shape than the other units that the Marshals had denounced: turns out they had it sweeter than everybody else, but still crying. One Proud Boy who had been moved to Lewisburg actually requested a transfer back to the DC jail and a week later was back with the others.
Yes, most of the Jan Sixers are all being held in their own unit, where they have developed cult-like rituals, and are being groomed by the right as patriotic martyrs, the whole experience is sure to push them deeper into the reactionary rabbit hole. One Jan Sixer Thomas Sibick requested and was granted transfer out of there, because he couldn’t deal with the toxic environment. So they’re in this reactionary echo chamber, most have had basically no interaction with other prisoners, and some might not ever, really for their own protection. But the few that may actually be sentenced to some real time – I think the longest so far got five years, one of the dudes who hit a cop with a fire extinguisher – they might be transferred to real prison, and it’s hard to say how they going to make it, especially on their own away from their compatriots. They’re hardcore Back the Blue supporters, “Law and Order” and all that, and many of them former cops themselves, so they probably think they are somehow above other prisoners, well they are going to have rude awakening in general population, Unless they’re sent to like a camp or a low, it’s likely many of them would “check in” and request protective custody, do the rest of their bid by themselves in the hole, people like Derek Chauvin or Dylann Roof. It’s also probable they would seek protection from white supremacist gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood with whom they share an obvious affinity. Because these groups, they are very organized, in almost every prison, and really it’s an unaddressed problem that prison is basically a factory that fosters conditions that create white supremacists from the same fake victimhood and racial resentment these insurrectionaries are espousing now. There is the potential these groups reinforce alliances and imprint lifetime commitments to their “cause”, even if they’re a bunch of ineffectual ignorant clowns, they could become far more dangerous when they are released and return to their fanatical hordes, now heralded as heroes.
Jason:
And if you look at what the jailed and arrested insurrectionists are saying, it is quite clear that even after a whole year, most of them regret nothing and are proud of their actions on Jan 6. They still buy the Big Lie, they still believe and talk about how patriots are rising up and are going to overthrow this fake Biden and bring back Trump. And unfortunately, we are probably going to be seeing more high-profile insurgent violence, as extemist researchers are noting that the level of activity and violent language eminating from far right circles is as high as it was just before the Oklahoma City bombing. They are still on some Turner Diaries shit, imagining violence inflicted on BLM and antifascist activists, who they see as race traitors and communists.
Jeremy:
So the DOJ announced on Jan 6 the formation of a new domestic terrorist task force, ostensibly to deal with this, and although carceral liberals have cheered it on, we should really be worried, especially about this whole “both sides” language around extremism this task force seeks to undertake. They always have and will continue to weaponize this against leftist and BIPOC communities, and probably a whole lot moreso, considering the long and well-documented racist history of the FBI.
Jason:
Look at the vagueness of the language to see the clearness of the problem. They say the biggest threats are from extremists “driven by racial or ethnic beliefs”, which they note includes white supremacists…but also would include “black identity extremists”, a term invented by the feds to delegitimize BLM activists so they could pursue more serious terrorism enhancements.
They also talk of “Anti-government sentiment”, including militia and anarchists, as if they are the same thing. Although the FBI has previously stated that antifa is an idea, not an organization, but that has not at all slowed their continued targeted harassment of antifascists, as we have already seen DHS earlier this year try blaming Portland riots on another new term, “violent antifa anarchist inspired individuals”. A lot of the uprising arrests that happened during the height of Trump’s rage when he sent feds to all the cities are still fighting these trumped-up-charges with the full weight of Biden’s DOJ.
Jason:
So we oppose the expansion of the DOJ terrorist task force. But fuck the DOJ for a second, let’s talk about ways everyday people have been resisting the MAGA menace. Antifascists have been documenting and confronting the rise of fascism since before Trump, and in the wake of Jan 6, it is good to see that more people are ‘getting into’ anti-extremist work than ever, but in doing so we need to be careful to not reinforce carceral “antifascism”. Abolitionists envision and practice accountability outside the prison system, can we not imagine other tools to fight fascism except the ones primarily used to oppress black and brown people?
In the wake of Jan 6, groups like Sedition Hunters have done a lot of online sleuthing, pouring over the massive amounts of available video, creating hashtags for the rioters until true names are identified. It is of course helpful to know who these fuckers are: they should be exposed for their actions that day. But then many people are tagging the FBI as if they are on the same side. Aiding a federal law enforcement investigation in order to put people in prison should not be the purpose of researching extremists. These are not long-term solutions: not likely preventative of future attacks nor likely to de-radicalize their base, as we are seeing, the jailing of the Jan Sixers bolsters the MAGA mythology, that Biden has reigned in the tyrannical new world order, giving further cause to the wannabe patriot revolutionaries.
What everyday antifascists are doing and have been doing is paying attention to what the far-right groups are doing in their area and around the country/world. And then, taking action and putting some pressure on them to disrupt their organizing. Some ideas that allegedly exist include documentation or doxing of local fascists, organizing call or email campaigns to get them fired or removed from office, flyering their neighborhoods or hangout spots, calling venues to get their events canceled. And of course organizing counter-protests, and showing up when they show up to the school boards or town halls with an alternative message. This does far more to put the fash on notice than to call the cops, and besides, we already know whose side they are gonna be on anyway.
While we were recording this episode, a major development has taken place”: Unicorn Riot and DDOS released about 500 gigs of leaks from Patriot Front chats and emails. The leaks were dropped as these white supremacists were in DC, escorted by cops as they marched alongside the anti-abortionist organization March for Life. AMAZING! The leaks are massive and are available now for researchers to get into. Included is documentation of their various hate crimes, embarrassing videos of their pathetic training, their internal communications which reveal plenty of identifiers, already leading to plenty of their members being exposed and doxed. It shows the laughability of their security. It shows the deep connections PF has with Proud Boys. It also shows that mosty members of PF self identify as National Socialists, as nazis. Utterly destroying the ridiculous attempts at distancing by right wingers, who claim that PF is not real, but a fed operation. It shows that if you are a nazi, you will be exposed. It shows a lot, we are excited to see the depth of shit to come out on this PF leaks..
Most importantly the leaks show that it is antifascists who are the ones doing the real work to handle the nazi problem in this country. The US government is committed to ignoring the threat besides slapping a few light sentences on some of the insurrectionists from Jan 6, when PF comes to town, you always see the cops leading the march and protecting them, allowing them the street, allowing them safe escape when invariably people chase them down, shouting chanting and laugh at the pathetic sight of the white-hooded modern day klan.
Jeremy:
The chuds are still active, standing back and standing by just waiting for the next insurrection, They are back in full revolt again, rallying all the goddamn time, worse now that we are entering midterm election year. Best to stomp ‘em down before the hordes get too big again. I guess you can say, it’s time to … SMASH MAGA!
Jeremy:
Hey, so have yall played our game Smash MAGA yet?
Jason:
We dropped a new version on the anniversary of January 6, in contemptful observance of that cursed day when America showed it’s ass. The story of the game is that a fascist plague sweeps the nation, entering a dark-age dystopia of zombified Trump supporters that threaten the free world. The events depicted in the game are based on real-life occurrences during the Trump regime. It’s satire, but it’s also a call to action: we wanted to recreate and reimagine these events, as if it could have gone differently if people were mobilized to stop the plague of fascism before it spreads.
Jason:
There’s also one new level that takes place in Mars-A-Lago, where Trump teams up with rich man villain of the year Elon Musk in a plan to spread MAGA toxicity to Mars, to escape a planet undergoing mass devastation by climate change!
Jeremy:
The biggest update in this new version is the multiplayer feature. Firstly, you can plug in a gamepad and do local two-player co-op, which is way more fun taking on the brainwashed masses as a team. But there’s also internet multiplayer, you can jump on our game servers and play with or against others online. There’s the regular modes like cooperative, deathmatch, capture the flag – we got laser tag! And you can compete in the high scores table, we’re doing a monthly tournament to win prizes like zines, tshirts.
Jeremy:
We’re also pleased to say that Smash MAGA is also now available on the Steam gaming platform. If you’ll remember, Steam, just like Apple and Google, had previously banned us from their platform for some suspect justifications. Remember for Google it was “political violence”, for Apple it was “offensive references to targeted groups such as MAGA”. So Steam claimed it was “copyright infringement”, and initially wouldn’t point to any specific violation, obviously we have full fair use, public figures, parody, satire, etc
Jeremy
So after months of appeals and assurances we don’t have any copyrighted content, they eventually gave it the ok, and so we’re on, and getting a lot more exposure too, way more than our initial release last September, which you know says a lot about how these corporate platforms position themselves as gatekeepers as to what apps make it or not, and of course what people are even allowed to run on their devices.
Jason:
So we released the game, it’s been fun playing multiplayer, and also reading the reviews and comments we’ve received so far. Now most people thought it was a blast, some also had some constructive criticisms. But we also got some hateful comments from these right-wingers. You know, usual ignorant shit, Rittenhouse supporters, posting racist memes. And talking about how they’re going to report us,how we should be taken down, which is hilarious cause cancel culture, right? These toxic parts of the gamer community, our game is calling them out, mocking them, and now they’re crying, we knew that was going to happen, They’re mad, it’s cool.
Jeremy:
So what’s next? Nobody believes that the events on January 6th signaled an end to Trumpism. It only showed how real the fascist threat has been, with no clear end in sight. What is the next battleground for the MAGA insurgents, how will they pivot and how best can we turn the tide? We will speculate on these trajectories in a future update – Smash MAGA! United Front Against Fascism. New levels, enemies, features, new twists, so stay tuned.
Smash MAGA! Multiplayer Tournament Launch Party on January 6
In contemptful observance of this fateful date, we are throwing a Smash MAGA! Multiplayer Tournament Launch party. Join us as we collectively take on the fascists as they storm the capitol! We’ll also be hosting an Antifascist Capture the Flag Laser Tag tournament!
In addition to multiplayer and couch co-op features, this update introduces a new level - MarS-A-Lago - where you finally confront the Trump Virus himself. All the sinister architects of the zombie insurrection have been escaping accountability by hiding out in the MAGA-infested Floridian hellscape - until now.
This new version of Smash MAGA! will be released on the Steam gaming platform. Please check out our Steam page and wishlist - and see you on January 6!
Smash MAGA! is currently available to play for free on all operating systems and mobile devices. Please live-stream / post about it using the hashtag #SmashMAGA on Jan 6!
More information: Smash MAGA
Video trailer: [previewyoutube="5LB_plA7T_I;leftthumb"]
Steam Bans Antifascist Game Smash MAGA Citing Bogus “Copyright Infringement” Cla
Steam Bans Antifascist Game Smash MAGA Citing Bogus “Copyright Infringement” Claims
Smash MAGA! is a politically-charged loot-and-riot action adventure game where you fight hordes of brainwashed right-wing extremists who have become infected with the Trump Zombie Plague. Fight the fascist disease at vaccination sites, counter-protests, autonomous zones, and more! Smash MAGA! is the first video game that features the January 6 right-wing coup attempt - confront frenzied fake-news-fed fascists as they storm the Capitol!
Smash MAGA! is free to play and available on all major operating systems including Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Android, and iOS. We are also on the itch.io gaming platform, the Samsung Galaxy Store, and APKPure.
We are also releasing the soundtrack to the game for free on Bandcamp and are selling a limited run of cassettes and game pamphlets for ten dollars (the proceeds going to support BLM and antifascist causes)
Our game has met censorship from all major app platforms, having been banned from Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Huawei AppGallery, and Steam, in addition to our initial Twitter account being restricted. The official reasoning has ranged from “inappropriate political content”(Huawei), “political violence”(Google), “copyright infringement”(Steam), to “offensive references to targeted groups such as MAGA”(Apple). We refute these justifications as overly broad and restrictive interpretations of the law and their own terms of service agreements. We have appealed these rejections and publicly deconstructed their bogus arguments in a series of articles posted to our website.
These suppressions demonstrate hypocritical double standards as to what these giants consider to be acceptable in the gaming industry: they will reject anything they deem “political” (especially left-leaning), but will accept any amount of indiscriminate GTA-style violence or state-sanctioned political violence like Call of Duty and other games that glorify the military and police.
Furthermore, one of the game’s developers, Jeremy Hammond, who is on federal probation after having been released from prison for computer hacking charges, is now facing a possible probation violation due to the development and release of this game. Jeremy’s probation officer is seeking clarification from federal court as to whether “antifa” is considered a “civil disobedience organization” and whether the release of Smash MAGA would be a violation of his special release conditions that prohibit “involvement or contact with civil disobedience organizations”.
Although Trump demonized antifascists and attempted to label them as “domestic terrorists”, the importance of taking action against the rise of fascism has become abundantly clear. We are living through a dark-age of heightened white-supremacist ultra-right wing violent extremism that was incited by Trump, but had always been present and systemic in the imperialist colonial project of America. Smash MAGA! is both social commentary and a call to action, challenging players to reflect on the true gravity of this moment in history.
We oppose these reactionary arguments that both reject political games and vilify antifascism. We must Smash MAGA!
We invite gamers and streamers to play Smash MAGA! and offer their opinions on whether this is a game that should be banned. Please use the hashtags #SmashMaga #SmashMagaGame #SmashMagaBan #PlaySmashMaga
Smash MAGA! was developed by twins Jeremy Hammond and Jason Hammond using the Godot Engine and is released under the MIT License.
--
Steam Bans Antifascist Game Smash MAGA Citing Bogus “Copyright Infringement” Claims
We had planned to release Smash MAGA! Trump Zombie Apocalypse on September 9th to honor the 50th year anniversary of the Attica prison uprising. The public beta release of our game Smash MAGA! had already been listed and playable on Steam for more than a month by the time we submitted our final release builds in advance of our release date. Unfortunately, Steam took longer than usual to review our submissions and allowed our release date to pass by, ultimately deciding to ban Smash MAGA! from their gaming platform.
In a perplexing harshly-worded rejection notice, Steam’s reason for the ban was that “this title contains copyrighted content”, and that “we are not interested in working with partners that dance around the edges of what’s legal. This app has been banned and cannot be reused. Re-submissions of this app, even with modifications, will not be accepted”.
Steam has refused to point to any examples of copyrighted content that we are supposedly infringing on. We deny that there are any copyright violations in our game, and any reference to an individual, institution, or corporation that may exist is obvious parody and protected by well-settled court precedent based on the Fair Use Doctrine and the First Amendment. We believe Steam‘s claim of copyright infringement is a false pretense to ban our game because they were afraid of any potential political controversy and reactionary blowback or perhaps simply because the reviewers personally disagreed with the message of our game.
Steam’s rejection of Smash MAGA! was also unexpected as they had previously approved both our Store Page and our Playtest Build through their review process: the game had already been playable on Steam for a month, and they had ample opportunity to give us an indication they weren’t going to allow us on their platform.
The rejection was also surprising because Steam has a supposed reputation for having a relaxed attitude about content restrictions. A statement on their website explains their policy is to allow “everything” except for “things we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling”. Very few games are banned from Steam; for example, in 2015 they reversed their prior ban on the game “Hatred” which features a “mass murderer” on a “genocide crusade”.
Previously, Smash MAGA! had been banned from other app platforms including the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Huawei AppGallery. Although they all have upheld the ban throughout several appeals, Steam is not offering any type of appeal process or the opportunity to modify and resubmit our game. Nevertheless, we will continue to lobby Valve Corporation to make Smash MAGA! available to gamers on Steam.
We are working to ensure that Smash MAGA! is playable on as many platforms as possible. It is currently available to play for free on Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Android, and iOS through direct download and manual installation.