That’s where I was trying to get to. All of us mutants appreciate the schadenfreude of seeing the Nazi being punched, but it doesn’t fix anything. Mob mentality for or against these fly-brained bigots won’t solve the problem. If you need to be a vigilante, follow the guy around with an arrow sign saying “this guy is a Nazi” but that’d probably take more effort than punching him.
We need everyone to espouse the truth that facism is not welcome here, but using mob violence just plays into their hand. Remember Trump’s “only I can solve it” speech that’s what these small people truly believe. Convince them that they are wrong, while they are temporarily blinded by partisanship most will come to their senses eventually.
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I’m not sure of the answer, either. Public shaming and ridicule would be my preferred course, except that these dopes usually don’t have good careers and healthy relationships to lose in the first place. Also, we’re sadly past the days where some ranter wearing a swastika armband would be considered as mentally deranged as someone wearing a Napoleon bicorn, a tinfoil hat, or absolutely nothing in public.
The more effective large-scale solution would involve politicians and media outlets making it clear that fascism and Nazism are absolutely unacceptable in American society. Unfortunately, many of them, including the president*, are dropping the ball there – indeed, some are enabling and emboldening the fascists.
What they have to understand is that not all liberals and progressives are polite middle-class pacifists. That’s why the presence of the antifa and juggalos in defensive roles at counter-protests is important. If alt-right types like this guy are stupid enough to spout their garbage around disenfranchised people who grew up with violence and no recourse to the police to solve problems, that’s another way for them to learn the hard lesson that fascists don’t have a monopoly on political violence.
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What’s so awesome about a person lowering himself to the level of a Nazi?
Was that what my grampas did when fighting on the allied side during WWII? Lowering themselves to the level of the Nazis?
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No. We don’t stoop to their level.
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I am not equating your post with fascism. I am not saying you are a fascist. I am not even indicating you are wrong. (You are talking about the US, which are very alien to me indeed.)
I am just asking you to be careful and specific. It would strengthen your point considerably. So, please don’t be pissed.
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even before the hateful rhetoric, the total absence of reason is the quintessential violence, which begets the secondary violence, to which you refer.
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Don’t have to, just gotta push em off the high horse.
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At the end of WWII we made peace with the Germans. That was nice, and I am glad we did.
However, we never made peace with Nazism. Nazism never made peace with us. The fight continues eternal as far as I am concerned.
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Repeat after me: “Punching a Nazi is not the same as being a Nazi. We don’t equate espousing genocide with preventing the espousal of genocide.”
Punching a Nazi is assault, which carries its own legal ramifications. It is nowhere in the same ballpark as dehumanizing entire races of people.
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Just FTR, from my perspective, anyone wearing a Nazi Armband actually needs to be restrained. While someone calls the police, preferably.
What is non-specific and ambiguous about “We have systemic racism, sexism, etc etc at all levels of government from the very tippy top to the scummy bottom”?
I’m sure they are doxxing antifa to send them Christmas cards; just as I am sure that these people will limit their murder to outside prison.
Your oh-so-cute-and-innocent-of-the-world act is tiresome. How may articles about murder inside our prison system do you think their are? How many murders do you think take place in prison. Like I said, let’s not pretend to be naive.
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Who does that remind you of?
I understand that the violence does not sit well with you, but when has turnabout ever not been fair play. This is about fear. The EXACT tool this turdbag wielded to feel important, he now understands better. It is not existentially the same between people who lack at all times real stopping points (boundaries, if you prefer), and people with good stopping points (boundaries) who choose to press them to make a point once in a while.
Empathy is hard, some people require object lessons.
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Why yes, that’s exactly what I said in my original post. Looks like you got me there. 
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Go back and read what I wrote.
It’s not who said it, it’s what was said. And Harmon’s right.
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I did read it. You and @mysterr are backpedaling doubling-down in the same way [EDIT: Sometimes I don’t words so good. Thanks for the correction, @M_Dub] . I know you might be uncomfortable with the idea, but you are making a false equivalency. Nazism is the bedrock of human behavior. You are saying that being violent towards a Nazi lowers one to the same level. You literally said that. I’m not sure how you could be more unambiguous. You don’t need to say “punching nazi = being nazi”, but what are you trying to communicate by saying that they’re on the same level? What else does that turn of phrase mean, if not that?
Again, punching a Nazi is nowhere near the level of being a Nazi, and to assert otherwise is just absurd.
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Just want to point out that some people believe that employing violence to effect change is stooping to the level of a Nazi and why that line of reasoning lacks any internal logic.
What makes a Nazi is the belief in racial superiority supported by bad science, the willingness to impose that belief on others, and the lack of a moral compass to steer them back from madness.
Violence is not unique to Nazism or Fascism and is very common tool of the oppressed. To say that to use violence is to stoop to their level is to discount the lives lost in defense of freedom for all of us. It minimizes the sacrifice of so many and disregards the struggle of people who fight for freedom. This nation was founded on the violence of revolutionary war. In the last 100 years or so millions laid down their life and took the lives of others to ensure freedom would not fade.
While violence may not be your path and may be something you do not agree with, let’s not insult those who fought to allow you that luxury by saying they stoop to the level of Nazism.
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The etc, for one thing. And that part:
Again, I don’t doubt the issues you mention exist. But saying “it’s the system, stupid” seems like just venting steam, and a bit naive in its own.
But we are derailing. Let’s stop here, ok? Since you are obviously annoyed because of my request, keep going. We probably differ in method, but not so much in direction.
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