Antifa rumors and hoaxes have stoked real fear in Philadelphia neighborhoods

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says the meaning of “antifa" is being constructed in real time via public discourse. “When you use the word antifa, you’re creating the sense that it actually does exist, normalizing the language of ‘antifa,’ without knowing what the reference is,” she said. “It is becoming a ‘devil term’ on the right—a term that is used to encapsulate everything you’re afraid of.”

・ From Philadelphia Inquirer