Should J6ers Talk to Antifa?

May 31, 2025

Is it better to talk to your enemies or shun them?

That question roils the J6 community, the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th and those that support and take advantage of them.

For some J6 advocates, like Suzzanne Monk, talking to antifa is verboten. If you’re seen talking to antifa, even if it’s just a harmless online interaction, then she’ll cut you off from access to her fundraising network. 

Why? Because it’s dangerous. Antifa wants you dead, according to Monk. Or in jail, and this vast shadowy network has the means to make that happen. 

Who is Antifa?

Everyone is antifa, according to the J6ers, a label that is used so widely that it effectively becomes meaningless. If you think that January 6th was a crime, then you’re antifa, too.

The chud fear of antifa is so pervasive that it’s hilarious. I first saw this during the days of the 1776 Restoration Movement (1776RM), the trucker convoy spin-off that briefly camped out on the National Mall in 2022. Every time something went wrong, they blamed antifa, even when it was their own incompetence or bad luck.

The suffix -tifa was soon attached to everything by the online audience watching their never-ending fuckups. 

1776RM was spectacularly pranked again and again. An online benefactor promised the “patriots” that he was sending them 100 Subway sandwiches. When none arrived, the chuds blamed antifa, and the term Subtifa was born. And then came Voodootifa and Witchtifa after other pranksters left voodoo dolls outside the 1776RM encampment. When chalk messages mocking the group appeared, antifa was again blamed and online wags coined the term Chalktifa.

Even I was called antifa. I went to take photos of their demonstration. They blew an airhorn in my face and called me antifa. That’s my antifa origin story. That and January 6th.

J6ers Talk to Antifa

Despite the paranoid fear of antifa, J6ers talk to them. Why?

Most of America doesn’t want to hear anything about January 6th. They want it to go away, since the idea of a mob storming the Capitol doesn’t fit into the myths that we tell about ourselves. We’re not supposed to be that kind of country.

And most Americans opposed pardons for J6ers, rightfully appalled by the idea that the supposed “back the blue” Donald Trump just opened the jail doors of Arkham Asylum and let violent convicted criminals out into the country.

“Normies” don’t want to hear J6 stories.

But you know who does? Antifa. J6ers and antifa are both interested in the events of that day.

There’s been a number of online Spaces on X, hosted by J6ers, where so-called antifa members have been invited to speak, much to the consternation of J6 gatekeepers like Suzzanne Monk.

One on the topic “Should We Speak to the Enemy” lasted 12 hours!

This issue is one of the key points of contention in the J6 Civil War, as J6ers and their advocates fight over money, leadership and clout.

But conversations are taking place. Mostly polite ones, with people sharing their views, while agreeing to disagree.

The so-called antifa, who want to murder and entrap people, turn out to be really good listeners. Empathetic and interested in a way that normie Americans never would be. People like Anarchy Princess, Corey Cullington and Laurie.

And they’ve even found things to agree upon, such as:

1. Prison Reform. Going to prison convinced many J6ers that the American penal system is harsh and counterproductive. Danean MacAndrews was sentenced to the infamous “Rape Club” aka FCI Dublin and since then has become a passionate advocate for reform. She spoke in a Space about the women she met and how they were overcharged and discarded.
2. Economic Populism. Both sides realize that the American Dream has been rigged by the rich for their benefit. The election of Donald Trump was, in many ways, a desperate attempt to change that. If the left and the right ever come together on a message of economic populism, the result will be a new revolution.
3. Fear of the Deep State. J6ers believe that they’re being monitored by the FBI and three-letter agencies. So do many on the left, especially in the Trump era. Our government has surveillance capabilities that the Stasi could only dream of. Limiting the reach of these agencies is something that should concern all of us. 

The J6 community is not a monolith. You don’t have to listen to their Spaces long before you hear some weird stuff, like how the FBI used 5G to cause a car crash or that there are 100 antifa members embedded in the J6 community. Antifa members so dedicated to the cause that they went to jail rather than disclose their secret identities. (I love “The Americans” style of this conspiracy theory.)

And the usual minimizing of their crimes. “Sure, he swung a bat at the police but lots of people had bats!”

So, I’m not going to kumbaya it and say that everything is going to work out fine. This is still a very dark time. 

But it’s better to talk than not to talk. It’s hard to “other” your enemy if you discover that they’re real people with hopes and interests just like you.