Sunday, January 22, 2017

Warren Ellis Summarized How to Deal With the Alt-Right/Neo-Nazis in His Newsletter

In his newsletter which I love reading and would encourage you to subscribe to, Warren Ellis addressed all this talk about how a leader of the Alt-Right AKA a Neo-Nazi was punched on live television and how people are debating if it was, "Right," or, "Wrong," for him to be punched. I love freedom of speech, and Warren Ellis does too, but I can't stand people trying to draw false equivalences between a Neo-Nazi and peaceful protesters who march to argue for Women's Rights. People say, "It's a slippery slope to demonize this guy because what about other freedom of speech," and etc. You know what though? Warren Ellis summarized things perfectly:

I understand there's been some confusion online as to whether it's ever right to punch a Nazi in the face.  There is a compelling argument that all speech is equal and we should trust to the discourse to reveal these ideas for what they are and confidently expect them to be denounced and crushed out by the mechanisms of democracy and freedom.
All I can tell you is, from my perspective as an old English socialist and cultural liberal who is probably way to the woolly left from most of you and actually has a medal for services to free speech -- yes, it is always correct to punch Nazis. They lost the right to not be punched in the face when they started spouting genocidal ideologies that in living memory killed millions upon millions of people. And anyone who stands up and respectfully applauds their perfect right to say these things should probably also be punched, because they are clearly surplus to human requirements. Nazis do not need a hug. Nazis do not need to be indulged. Their world doesn't get better until you've been removed from it. Your false equivalences mean nothing. Their agenda is always, always, extermination. Nazis need a punch in the face.
(And the argument that such assaults allow Nazis to get more attention doesn't work so well when they were already going live on a national television network, because this is where we are now. This is how normalised their presence in our culture is.) 

In summary, punch the damn Nazi. Don't make false comparisons between the Nazi's views and other views that exist. Don't ask, "If we try to silence him what about when others try to silence us?" and thereby ignore that you're arguing for equality and he's arguing for genocide. He has freedom of speech, and I have the freedom to punch him in his dirty Nazi mouth in honor of my relatives who died in the Holocaust because of his horrific ideology (and if some hadn't escaped my family line would have ended as countless others did). I feel very strongly about this, and would not hesitate to punch a Nazi myself despite 99% of the time being a peaceful, loving person who respects differences of opinion, and such. Literal Nazis do not deserve a public forum, because the last time they got one their disgusting views became normalized, accepted, and we all know what happened. In conclusion, I say it again: Punch the damn Nazi.

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