Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/19/twitter-users-hunt-down-seattl.html
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4 Likes
Haha that’s awesome. Cue people defending the Nazi scumbag.
11 Likes
Truly a man with a lot to answer for.
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I’ll step up. While I get a kick that this Nazi caterpillar picker was punched, the video doesn’t show any reason to resort to violence. I understand that the stink-bug was harrassing people earlier, this vigilante violence only plays into their narrative that they are the oppressed.
Instead we should take videos of people absolutely destroying their ideas with ridicule. The only way to stop an ass like this is to show the world how small and stupid he really is.
33 Likes
Sounds like the man was causing a scene intentionally and probably expected to get clocked.
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While part of me relishes the schadenfreude, the logical part is concerned; internet outrage lynch mobs aren’t a good idea in general, especially as often as misinformation and straight up lies end up ‘going viral.’
O_o
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What’s so awesome about a person lowering himself to the level of a Nazi?
What act of violence by the Nazi was thwarted by the assailant’s violent physical act?
Absent an imminent threat of physical harm necessitating defensive violence, the actions shown on this video are fucked up, and applauding them makes you no better than the Nazi.
Next time, call the police and let them sort out the Nazi.
9 Likes
If these fucks are feeling “emboldened” by Trump and think it’s OK to harass people going about their daily lives because of the color of their skin, maybe it’s OK that they start feeling a little…uncomfortable themselves. Talking to them doesn’t accomplish anything, and shaming people who have no shame just wastes everyone’s’ time.
The only good nazi is a dead nazi, but since our cops would rather shoot black, brown, and gay people, I’m OK with seeing this guy cold-cocked over and over.
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Based on other news stories that had already been done and police let him be.
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From local reports I have read, the asshole in question had thrown a banana at a black man* man and called him an ape just prior to the hitting. So this is a defensive punch as far as I can see.
*Edit: I may have been incorrect at the race of the banana/ape witness/victim. Original point still stands for me.
5 Likes
Well, it’s not like he was an African-American man with a Black Panther beret yelling abuse at “crackers” on the train and throwing Velveeta cheese at them. In that scenario, it’s more likely that the police would have delivered the beat-down themselves, albeit not on camera.
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Calling the police isn’t an option for many people these days; they’re more likely to escalate the problem than to resolve it.
18 Likes
That guy hits his head wrong and we’ve got ourselves a murder charge. They sought him out, ran him down, and attacked him. Madness. Madness and stupidity.
9 Likes
All I’m going to say is that if you’re going to make someone else face the consequences of their actions, you should face the consequences of your own. That is to say if you’re going to hunt someone down and punch them you should be fully prepared to go to jail for it.
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Violence is not the solution to any problem.
Unless the problem is Nazis.
Violence is the only answer to Nazis, as determined in 1945.
If you wanna be a shitty racist and rant and rave, fine, this is America, you get to do that. But as soon as you strap on a swastika and start calling yourself a Nazi, you are actively advocating genocide, and should be treated thusly.
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I’ve gotta say it’s pretty specious on Select All’s part (as quoted by BB), to compare this to the vengeance-minded internet searches for Spencer-puncher or the marathon bomber. This started IRL (people in the street witnessed this happening), and the perpetrator was doing something pretty well identifying themselves (Nazi armband).
Frankly, if these folks managed to knock out the WRONG nazi armband wearing waste of space, the area has more problems than just the one.
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Public ridicule did little in stopping Hitler and Mussolini. As far as playing into their narrative goes, if you mean a narrative that includes “people will punch you for being a Nazi” then I’m all for it. They are right about one thing, they are the oppressed and they need to remain oppressed until they become completely suppressed. Finally, if by vigilante you mean someone who brings justice where the system fails to do so, I am all for vigilante justice.
The system is broken and rotten to the core. We have systemic racism, sexism, etc etc at all levels of government from the very tippy top to the scummy bottom. To expect that system to effect meaningful positive change when it is itself the very engine which drives the problem forward seems a bit naive.
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Nope. Not even then.
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Wait…punching someone who espouses the ideals of genocide is the same as espousing the ideals of genocide? What a strange sort of logic. EDIT: It has been pointed out by the original author that they didn’t mean they were equal ideas, but that committing violence against a Nazi is “being no better than” one. I see no distinction between those assertions. They are both equating things that are vastly, clearly different.
As Dan Harmon recently said in a pretty amazing rant:
Fascism is a fucking cancer, it will eat your country unless your country kills it.
Here’s what happens when you get cancer: NOTHING GOOD. NOTHING. There is no way out of it. I’m your country’s doctor. You’ve got cancer. You have fascism. You are going to suffer. You are going to fight. You are going to feel pain. You are not getting out of this. We have fascism. It is happening. We’re fucking dead maybe, or maybe they’re dead. That’s about it. There’s not a continuum. It’s not a grey area.
It’s not a fad. Fascism doesn’t pop up and then recede when it finds out no one’s into it. It doesn’t respond to love. It doesn’t respond to hate. It doesn’t respond to ignoring it. It doesn’t respond to timeouts. It doesn’t respond to attention. It doesn’t respond to lack of attention.
You stab it. You cut it out. You bombard it with poison or you die. And in any case, you will probably die. Don’t die talking to cancer! Don’t die hanging out with it. Don’t die arguing with it on Twitter. It’s fucking fascism. ENOUGH! Team up. Stop bitching about Bernie Sanders. I don’t care what flavor you want your democracy to be. It’s democracy versus motherfucking fascism!
EDIT: So many people jumping on the “let’s just shame them” train, which is completely absurd as @Woodchuck45 says. You cannot give this shit a platform, and recording you “debating” it just gives them more free publicity. Debating it gives it an air of legitimacy, as though there really are two sides or competing ideas here that have merit. Do you think anything happened with the Ken Ham debate? NO. All it did was give the creationists ground - that their side is legitimate enough to face off against science, and an audience that was on the fence was exposed to that garbage. But it’s not legitimate. Nazism is not an idea acceptable talking to or about, giving any ground or legitimacy to. Fascism cannot be allowed to have room to breathe, flourish, or take root.
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