Former collegiate champion swimmer and transgender activist Lia Thomas has had social media buzzing this week after a photo surfaced that appears to show her wearing a shirt in support of the militant antifascist group Antifa.
On Monday, Andy Ngo of The Post Millennial shared a screenshot from an Instagram account that appeared to share a photograph of Lia Thomas wearing a shirt that read “Antifa Super Soldier.”
“#Trans swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly William Thomas, has now embraced the #Trantifa branding in new photos posted on social media,” Ngo said in a tweet. “Trans violent militancy is the current focus of #Antifa. They believe that critics of trans ideology should be silenced, maimed, or murdered. Some call for sexual violence against females in particular, as revenge.”
#Trans swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly William Thomas, has now embraced the #Trantifa branding in new photos posted on social media.
Trans violent militancy is the current focus of #Antifa. They believe that critics of trans ideology should be silenced, maimed or murdered. Some… pic.twitter.com/qlU0jQXlbK
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 17, 2023
Antifa, which is short for antifascist – is a collection of autonomous left-leaning groups that have developed a reputation for their militant opposition to white supremacists and neo-Nazis and members of white nationist groups like the Proud Boys.
The group has become wildly unpopular with conservatives who have been made to fear the group, especially after Donald Trump claimed that he would declare the group a domestic terrorist organization.
It’s worth noting that the shirt is almost certainly a play on a popular Internet meme mocking conservatives. The phrase “Antifa Super Soldier” originated from a satirical Tweet back in 2017 that many Internet-illiterate conservative Twitter users incorrectly feared was a sincere call to violence due to a failure to comprehend the sarcasm in the post.
And it appears that many people took the bait once again.
Yikes https://t.co/r7OAusVZLM
— YAF (@yaf) July 17, 2023
Not a surprise but definitely a red flag 🚩 https://t.co/FLwWSRjPTR
— Brandon Brown (@BrownBrandon503) July 17, 2023
Doesn't this make so much make sense….
I haven't specifically bashed Lia Thomas on anything (other than calling him an entitled narcissist which I stand by) because ultimately he was following the rules in place. But this is disturbing https://t.co/EHnqkBG1kJ
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) July 17, 2023
Guys. This is an old meme designed to clown on people who take it seriously https://t.co/uzwZfbWtTQ https://t.co/ctVlBu7lnB pic.twitter.com/4PtEzF5mox
— mika temple (@mika_temple) July 18, 2023
Well look at that. I thought it was just a meme going around. https://t.co/KywSPTOBdb
— The Freddersons (@FredFredderson1) July 17, 2023
That’s disturbing 😳
Wow— Heidi Edelweiss 🇺🇸🇩🇪 (@IMpwdx4x9bz) July 18, 2023
https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status/1680973970000998400?s=20
It looks like people are no less gullible in 2023 than they were in 2017.
[Andy Ngo]
