Ask Lemmy

Don’t rape them, don’t torture them, hell even killing is too far 99% of the time. Fascists thrive on being viewed as strong men and nothing is more humiliating to them than being taken down physically. Words mean nothing to the antisemite

I'm glad we have established the fact that there ARE limits to Intolerance to Intolerance. We can work from here.

The reason Nazis and the KKK rally is partially the same reason the Westboro Baptist yell incendiary remarks: because it's legal, and along comes some dumbass who can't contain his temper and they throw the first punch. It gets recorded, then their recruitment surges and that person gets thrown in jail for battery charges while they bait lawsuits for damages. Being taken down physically doesn't do jack shit. You know what strong men actually hate? Mockery. There's a reason the mockery and satire of Charlie Chaplin got under the skin of Hitler so much. There's a reason from Mark Twain to Jon Stewart have been so influential, because they tend to belittle the strong man... And they like nothing more than being belittled.

They know no shame, but they do HATE embarrassment. It's why Putin has images of him being perceived as a gay clown. It's why Xi of China outlawed images of Winnie the Pooh. You don't even need violence to undermine these dumb fucks if you act early enough.

What astounds me is that people will spam the wikipedia page for Paradox of Tolerance, but where's the spamming of the Ethics of Reciprocation? The Golden Rule? The Silver Rule? A remarkable double-standard where you are actually elevating the violence before anyone else.

So hopefully you're not making the case that preemptive violence is the only means at stopping nazis.

So please show me: Is there any actual, substantive evidence whatsoever that preemptively punching nazis prevents rising fascism? Or does it just make you feel good and tough because you punched a guy with a swastika in a mosh pit and you're trying rationalize it? As though in that moment you were storming the beaches of Normandy or something...? Anyways it shouldn't even be hard to convince me because I, too, hate fascists and if this was a legitimate strategy then that's great. But what ultimately, almost inevitably, happens is that it seems to backfire, muddy the waters, serve you prison time, and then foster greater recruitment among these sad individuals.

Their words are violence. Physical is not the only form of violence. They make minorities fear going outside. It is proportional to make them fear spreading their message through the only means they understand. They are violating the social contract they are no longer covered by the contract

Sorry, that's not how it work. Again, review Brandenburg v. Ohio. Someone saying mean things to you that doesn't amount to an imminent violence or a direct threat doesn't warrant punching. If so, then you're falling for the exact same sort of ends-justify-means trap that Nazis themselves use and that should concern you. Hate speech is protected as free speech in America for a reason because if it wasn't then the definition of Hate could easily be skewed into suppressing whichever "Them" group is unpopular in the moment.

The problem is that you're going about fighting fascism the wrong way. If you didn't put the cart before the horse, then it should already be self-evident that fascism is wrong. So this requires going backwards and analyzing why your messaging strategy is failing. Why there is a vector into this radicalization in the first place. Is it genetic predisposition? (hopefully not or at least the bar for evidence is enormous, lest you're a racist yourself). Is it simply a matter of environmental factors from low education to toxic parenting and diminished opportunity? No differently than the inner-city violence to the white Appalachian poverty & crime, this is probably more likely. So instead of going, "hur let's punch nazis!", perhaps we need to assess what are better strategies, from satire & mockery, to actually tackling the key vectors into which a "normie" gets radicalized in the first place. Is this as exciting? No. It's the harder, more constructive work.

TED Talk - My Descent into America's neo-Nazi movement — and how I got out

You ask about Richard Spencer. The reason you haven't seen him, or Michael Flynn, or any of the other ostensibly right-wing nationalist scum is because Trump isn't in office and their job is to drum up attention from within their own base of echo-chambers. A year later following that interview, he held a neo-nazi rally. What if I told you that recruitment following that video probably ticked up?

Like, I don't know if you recognize that what you're doing is opening the pathway to radicalization in your own right. Let's take an extreme example to prove the point: A terrorist group, such as Hamas. People don't wake up and go, "gee, let's go murder civilians!" First it starts with, "punching an Israeli occupier to our land is okay!" and steadily progresses. This sort of behavior is emblematic of quite literally every single fucking extremist group in the world, and that's not different if you're fighitng for a just cause or not.

Congrats you discovered law isn’t morality. I will happily give the homeless food in cities where that is illegal.

Congrats, you discovered what feels good isn't necessarily effective in your end goal.

Lol, lmao even

I love how this was completely and entirely deflected with a modicum of substance. Once again, proving the point that you're in the "Punch a nazi" thing based on how it feels good to you — not because it actually yields productive results.

I mean, let's put aside that they threw the first actual punch in the following scenarios but — didn't we collectively "punch" nazis in the 1940s? Didn't we collectively punch nazis during the American civil war, and how did that turn out for us... They all vanished, is that right...?

So maybe... Just maybe... We need to put our thinking hats on to figure out an alternative solution to the problem.

Really? They believe you should only attack the intolerant? I thought they wanted to attack me a trans person for existing in front of society, or interacting with children, or because I’m simply an abomination.

Let me make this very clear: I am not excusing the fallacy of their belief set, but yes, they do (wrongly) feel they are fighting an intolerant takeover of their own existence. That's how THEY would frame it, wrong though it may be. They then justify their actions because of this perceived preemptive intolerance. Naturally it's total bullshit and what they're really fighting for is the maintaining of their historically privileged positions in society. Still, that doesn't change the underlying point I'm making. Both circumstances justify preemptive physical violence via ends-justify-the-means mentality.

I mean fuck, man, we teach our kids the same shit: That crossing the verbal-physical barrier of aggression is a no-go with your siblings. Now if they throw the actual first physical punch, then sure.

By the way, if you think it's too far to kill, punching also more frequently than you realize can easily lead to death. If you're uninformed on this, I can provide further sources.