Right-wing actors mimicked leftist movement names to hijack protest meaning.

Evidence

The MBL and Vem Pra Rua were clearly appropriating the language, posture, and repertoire of contention that entered the national consciousness in 2013. But these were not anti-authoritarian, self-funded punks and committed horizontalists who would rather cease to exist than tell anyone what to do. They got money from some of Brazil’s richest people (and right-wing institutions based in the United States) to pursue clear political goals. That didn’t matter. Their messaging strategy was effective. After one huge protest, the Atlas Network—that “neoliberal Comintern” in Washington, DC—publicly congratulated the MBL for organizing protests and “working to tear down Brazil’s barriers to liberty.” — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 553 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

I felt rage bubbling up inside of me from the pit of my stomach to my heart, lungs, and then my head until my mind was awash with waves of hot, red fury. I didn’t care if these guys, just a little bit younger than me, were right-wing. They were lying. They had tricked people, including members of the Movimento Passe Livre’s own family, into believing that they stood for something similar. They lied when they said that they were apolitical, and nonpartisan. They hid the nature of their group and who funded it. And now they were lying about their feelings, putting on another show of what they thought people wanted to see. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 671 (#expands, via linked claim)

McInnes envisioned the Proud Boys as a fusion of right-wing ideology and youth culture. The group’s manifesto championed “minimal government, maximum freedom, anti–political correctness, anti–racial guilt, pro–gun rights, anti–Drug War, closed borders, anti-masturbation, venerating entrepreneurs, venerating housewives.” Members gathered to read aloud from Pat Buchanan’s 2001 book, The Death of the West, and their uniform—a Fred Perry polo shirt—nodded to the 1970s British skinhead subculture, long romanticized in Vice’s early aesthetic. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 448 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 3 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Well-funded right-wing groups borrowed leftist protest aesthetics for funded political goals — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 553; The Proud Boys borrowed skinhead subcultural signifiers for right-wing organizing — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 448; The MBL misappropriated the left’s protest repertoire and image — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 671

Related

• Well-funded right-wing groups borrowed leftist protest aesthetics for funded political goals (similarity 0.91)
• The MBL misappropriated the left’s protest repertoire and image (similarity 0.87)
• The Proud Boys borrowed skinhead subcultural signifiers for right-wing organizing (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Well-funded right-wing groups borrowed leftist protest aesthetics for funded political goals #corroborates (0.95) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 553
• The MBL misappropriated the left’s protest repertoire and image #expands (0.90) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 671
• The Proud Boys borrowed skinhead subcultural signifiers for right-wing organizing #exemplifies (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 448