Twitter users hunt down Seattle Nazi and knock him out

You are asking if violence stopped fascism? Yes, it is the only thing that worked.

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Damn. If that’s the way it went down, then more power to whoever knocked that asshole out! I need to watch the video now cause I can get behind that. Fuck intolerance, but people proclaiming and spreading violent intolerance, please someone who’s tougher than me, punch those MFs out! (crap! as long as they’re ideologically aligned with me…)

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I’d say just walking around with a Nazi armband (and obviously not in costume) is reason enough to get punched out.

And fuck any narrative spewed by Nazis. Those cockheads will poor me like toddlers regardless; why give a fuck? Their ethically bankrupt narrative has no fucking currency.

IMO, while police racism is rife, and there’s tacit approval for a bigot free-for-all from the highest level, such direct, grassroots responses as this are the only thing providing any meaningful chilling effect on these douchebags.

Obviously, it’s less than ideal for vigilante violence to be the biggest deterrent to rampaging gangs of Nazi thugs, but almost as obviously, actions like this are meeting a need the authorities are not.

This is where you’re at, America.

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Well intentioned white Americans are more concerned about punching Nazis than they are about doing anything that productively addresses the issue of racial injustice.

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You are in the late stages of a fascist revolution. There is no realistic possibility of a legitimate federal election while the fascist GOP remains in power. Eleven million undocumented Americans are at immediate risk of persecution. The police, the border patrol and the military are all being massively expanded.

There is no possibility of anything getting better until the fascists are removed from power.

Wake up.

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Incidentally, that was a downtown neighbourhood and antifa were there in minutes. They didn’t drive in from the suburbs. Antifa is a primarily working class and lower middle class phenomena, and not at all monotone.

The basic story here is that the American working class are not going to just quietly stand there and take it while fascists threaten to enslave and kill them.

On the bright side, the fascists have no idea how much of a sleeping giant they’ve awoken.

But the workers need help.

The reason why the working class aren’t constantly in the streets is related to the reason why they don’t vote as much as the liberal commentariat thinks they should: they are already heavily oppressed, and most of them are too busy staying alive to spare resources towards political struggle.

Protest is expensive, and the working class are broke.

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For sure, if someone is being a racist asshole I think it’s our civic duty to call them out on it, right then and there. Hopefully the public shaming, recognition of their assholism, that their behavior isn’t ok in the society I want to live in will be enough. But when it isn’t, I’m hard pressed to even walk that (injured) person to their car (I live in sonoma county ca, a weird mix of no one would dare to be publicly racist, and some deeply hidden/not so hidden racist attitudes - that might have been ‘my’ trader joes…) I don’t try to do that because I apparently look like a biker or something and that scares people, I should, but I guess my own privilege/power ‘alienates’ me. I’m really a pretty nice - if ignorant guy.

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No, I didn’t expect that from you (and was snarking on that). Guess I should have added a /s tag. I don’t post here nearly often enough for it to have been assumed.

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Okay, no problem.

Not really the time and place for subtle or edgy humour, though.

No, no, no.
As a much better person than I stated, “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”
I believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant, turn these assholes out, make them known publicly, make them persona non grata. It has been shown with the pizza nazi, corporations won’t deal with people like these.
These people do not represent me or the large majority of the US; do the have a significant minority? Yes sadly they do, but punching them in the streets is not going to help.
The ITG in all of us would love to be on the front lines, but reality sets in. Most of us have family, and lives to maintain. I will sacrifice my ease but I can’t say I’m willing to sacrifice my children’s stability and chance for a better future.

https://itsgoingdown.org/boston-tens-thousands-turn-far-right-free-speech-rally/

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No, I was explicitly not asking that. I was asking whether the specific tactic of attacking random fascists just for being visibly fascist was productive or counter-productive in preventing the spread and rise of fascism. But as @Wanderfound has pointed out elsewhere, that is not what happened here, so my question was pretty pointless. (That’ll teach me to watch videos before commenting on the associated thread,)

Spain and Greece both saw peaceful transitions to parliamentary democracy, and Portugal’s Carnation Revolution was essentially bloodless.

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Really?

And as far as Portugal goes, if this timeline is at all accurate, it appears not to have been bloodless and certainly would not have succeeded without a genuine and believable willingness to use violence.

Ultimately of course, any coup or other regime change only succeeds because it has the support of the population (or at least can persuade the other side that it has). Mere violence isn’t enough so I’ll grant you that.

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Yes? I’m not an expert in this area, but as I understand it, the Falangist regime was abolished by its second and last head of state (Juan Carlos) in favour of a constitutional monarchy (coincidentally headed by Juan Carlos): it was not overthrown by violence. The subsequent coup six years later failed without loss of life after JC refused to endorse it and the armed forces declined to support it. Likewise, the Greek junta appears to have collapsed from within after it lost the support of the military in the wake of Turkey’s invasion of northern Cyprus.

I think it’s fair to describe the Carnation Revolution as essentially bloodless: the only shooting seems to be have done by the Estado Novo side, and there were few deaths. But you’re right that it would not have succeeded if the anti-government armed forces hadn’t made it plain that violence was a real and immediate option.

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No derailing or off-topicing intended… but I like the sound and feel of that phrase “caterpillar picker”, what does it mean? (Is it meant in the sense of “warehouse forklift operator”?)

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Skipping rope will not stop the rise of white nationalism in the U.S. which is why I don’t recommend it as a strategy to stop the rise of white nationalism in the U.S. You can skip rope all you want but don’t pretend it will help anything.

No, the fundamental narrative of the fascist is authoritarian nationalism. The strong rule the weak is not a feature unique to fascism nor does it define it.

When the law ceases to protect the people, when law enforcement has been infiltrated at every level by white nationalists, when the leader of our nation is publicly sympathetic to the white nationalist agenda, the rule of law becomes a farce. The law ceases to be the refuge for the people and instead acts to obstruct positive change. In such times it may be necessary act rather than wait for the rusted gears of the justice system to squeak once more.

Citation needed. I don’t seem to remember Hitler not gassing people because someone insisted he be reasonable.

Advocate for an objective reality? And just what do you suppose that means. Can we even say objectivity exists? And how can advocating for objectivity bring health to society when objectivity as a concrete thing may be beyond the grasp of us monkeys? No, I’m sorry but that’s just word salad tossed at the wall. It’s meaningless and does nothing to bring us closer to resolution.

So perhaps more white males need to stand up and punch a Nazi. Maybe this means it’s their duty to do so.

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To be fair the question of when the Falangist regime ended is a bit of an open question. You can take it to be to the official acceptance of the new constitution in 1978 or the elections in 1982.

Either way, while the regime was not overthrown by violence the transition was not ‘peaceful’ by any means.

The 23F coup attempt as you say was unsuccessful because the army did not support it. So - essentially failed for a lack of being able to apply sufficient violence.

Ditto the Greek junta. That also involved an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the head of the junta, a self-immolation, a student uprising and the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey.

Plenty of violence there.

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I was just trying to come up with an insult strong enough but one that wouldn’t offend others. nazi would usually work but as the guy was a nazi no dice.
I’m up in New England and there are a lot of caterpillars around right now so it popped into my head
I was going to go with caterpillar licker, but that didn’t sound right. 🤷

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So the solution is to go around beating up people who publicly announce their fascism? We’ll deal with fair elections after we seize power back… I think I’ve heard that one before.

At no point did I say nothing needs to be done - only that punching nazis on the street is not the answer.

Again, how will punching the nazis help?. There are better things you can do to help those people - protest, pressure your elected reps, provide shelter and resources.

Now I can see your response here - punching nazis and any of the above actions are not mutually exclusive. But how are you supposed to help when you’ve been thrown in jail by the fascist police for punching a nazi?

Ah - classic way to just shut someone down. On that note, I’m off for a coffee!

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