What it's like when Nazis infiltrate your conference

[timber_munki]

Stonewall them & get them thrown out. In any situation where you’re required to explain your actions just cite Popper’s Paradox of Tolerance and state that clearly begs the question of whether the Constitution is a halting or non halting problem, when reading the text and considering the time, energy & resources put into it it’s plain that it’s the former so you were protecting the Constitution.

[LDoBe]

A star of david would have made them more uncomfortable.

[hotel]

@CarlMud

This right here is bullshit. Blocking aisles means people can’t get to fire exits, restrooms, or other people in your party who might have your inhaler in their bag. If the convention doesn’t have a rule against it, the fire marshal and human rights do.

My thought as well. I’ve been to conferences where the venue staff were totally uncompromising about fire regulations–if there were blocked aisles, too many people in a room, etc, the talk/panel/whatever wouldn’t go forward until they’d cleared the aisles and moved the excess people out.

[Wanderfound]

Focusing on fire regulations in this case strikes me as rather misguided, however. Trying to find some ideologically-neutral reason to exclude Nazis is missing the point.

When Nazis infiltrate your conference, you throw them out. Because they’re Nazis.

It doesn’t matter if they’re currently well-behaved rule-abiding Nazis. Throw them out.

[FGD135]

But Beschizza wants us to shout it… MOlST!

[Purplecat]

So, basically the alt-right have discovered entryism:

Entryism

This is unfortunate, but it’s something that all organisations, hobbyists and conventions should be on guard against. We’ve seen it several times in the past few years, when a group that doesn’t really care about the main hobby itself tries to march in and impose their political ideas on the group as a whole. And past experience has given us a couple of insights into how to deal with this.

1. Never compromise with the entryists or accommodate their demands. They look on compromise as a sign of weakness and push for more.
2. They are masters of the wounded gazelle gambit, so never break your own rules to deal with them. You have to adapt your rules to deal with the threat properly, before they take over. This is especially important with Nazis, because breaking down the rules is what they want. They want to settle things by force, and having you cut down every law that exists to get to them is giving them an environment in which they can win.,

[hotel]

Of course you throw them out because they’re Nazis. Wtf?

I was observing that, in at least some conference venues, some of their tactics could not work.

No doubt they have other disruptive fuckery to fall back on, but I don’t mind if the venue shuts some of it down on purely structural grounds before it gets started.

[tinoesroho]

@Purplecat

They are masters of the wounded gazelle gambit, so never break your own rules to deal with them. You have to adapt your rules to deal with the threat properly, before they take over. This is especially important with Nazis, because breaking down the rules is what they want . They want to settle things by force, and having you cut down every law that exists to get to them is giving them an environment in which they can win

Entryists want the followimg

1. Attention.
2. To Shut down proceedings.
3. To Control Proceedings

If you see a Nazi, treat them like the Nazi scum they are. They’ll break rules, counting on you to be too squeamish and they exploit decorum fetishists.

We see these same tactics being used by Republicans, of all things. These fuckers call for, count on, and celebrate their followers committing violence as a means of shutting down democracy.

Rules are not a suicide pact, they are a peace treaty.

[gracchus]

@tinoesroho

If you see a Nazi, treat them like the Nazi scum they are.

Part of what’s happening, I think, is that some liberals and progressives are still coming to terms with the new reality: “Nazis are not welcome” is no longer an attitude that can just be assumed to be held by the vast majority of Americans but instead one that must be vocalised strongly.

I do think that people are wising up quickly, but the closer you get to the political centre and the establishment the more denialism and complacency you see about the danger of resurgent fascism.

@tinoesroho

Rules are not a suicide pact, they are a peace treaty.

Nicely stated. Also applies to the Second Amendment, by the way, which ammosexuals view as the Constitution’s suicide clause.

[Wanderfound]

@Purplecat

They are masters of the wounded gazelle gambit, so never break your own rules to deal with them. You have to adapt your rules to deal with the threat properly, before they take over.

…and, IMO, the way to do that is not by establishing an intricate ruleset which can be gamed, but is better handled by something along the lines of “we retain the right to eject any participant at our discretion”. As well as solidly established protocols regarding who is empowered to make that decision, and procedures to ensure that these person/s are always available at short notice.

[the_borderer]

The golden rule needs to be used whenever these situations come up.

Golden rule (law)

[tinoesroho]

The one with the gold makes the the rule? /s