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Is it just me, or is news today happening faster than before? Contemporary calamities are treated like contestants on America’s Got Talent, giving their all in the spotlight before they’re buzzed off in favor of the next national crisis. So this post is a little late, but not by long. And who knows? It may soon blunder back into the headlines. Today’s topic: Nazis, and punching them. Let me be clear: Punching Nazis is not for me. I understand it as a course of action, I recognize how it’s warranted in certain situations, but I cannot walk or endorse that path. The times I’ve tasted violence left a bad taste in my mouth. When I threw someone to the ground in high school; when I slugged an aggravating coworker in the arm; when I slapped a tabloid out of the hands of a too-forward solicitor. Violence has never satisfied whatever need I thought it would fill. These instances were impulsive responses, small and momentary, but each one left me reeling. I imagine that planned violent resistance, where people might get beaten and seriously hurt, would make me sick to my stomach. ‘Punch More Nazis’ became a rallying cry for a certain liberal cadre after Richard Spencer’s decking went viral. They rallied behind a quippable maxim that offered simple, direct orders easily followed by soldiers of all stripes. I’m not arguing moral equivalency. I’m not claiming moral superiority. I know that white nationalists bring brutality to the doorsteps of blacks and Jews and other targets of their hate, often to the point of beat-or-be-beaten. But it’s vital to draw a distinction between self-defense and seeking bloodshed under the guise of political resistance. While I don’t prescribe to the former, I have trouble condemning it—everybody has a right to bodily safety. The latter, though, while cathartic, is ultimately a self-defeating tactic. Many of the arguments I’ve read supporting anti-fascist fisticuffs frame it as the only form of resistance left, especially as the white nationalist media presence swelled. “It’s the epitome of white privilege,” I read, “to be able to encounter racism and consider calmly listening to what this nicely dressed man thinks about segregation and integration, “black on black crime,” and so forth.” Which is true, but also draws a false dichotomy. We shouldn’t give Nazis a podium and wait patiently for our turn to rebut, but Punching is not our only other option. Policies of peace are not calls for complacency. Here’s a short list of nonviolent alternatives that took me literally three minutes to think of.
I get the frustration with nonviolent resistance. Really, I do. In the face of such virulent evil, how can we just turn the other cheek? How can we refuse to take up arms? The answer lies in the scale of our problem: white nationalists are a serious minority in this country, hugely outnumbered by regular folk. This is the population we should focus on. Inspire them to be better. Convince them to join our ranks. We can never stamp out hate completely, but we can shut it out. Our work for a better future needs to be founded on love for each other, not hatred for a despised Other.
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