The punch heard ’round the world has inspired video games, songs, and film festivals. What it’s also birthed, it seems, is a new movement: the #SwoleLeft, a group of weightlifters dedicated to intimidating right-wing bigots and white nationalists.
As this new piece from Mel Magazine details, the #SwoleLeft was initiated by Poncho Martinez, a 26-year-old New Yorker who now trains “30 politically active liberal men in powerlifting, so they can be strong enough to defend themselves against attacks by far-right extremists, and to intervene in potential hate crimes.”
The movement is also a response to the alt-right’s stereotype of liberals as feeble “cucks” who are all talk and no action. In Martinez’s words:
Trump’s election made it clear that the Democrats are incompetent—that their power machinations are useless when confronted with a different fighting style, and that regular people need to get involved with politics on an individual level and on a daily basis.