On "Punching Nazis" TL;DR Lots of Mediation Before Punch-Time
My military service instilled in me a patriotic duty to combat fascism, that’s part of the oath we take. As a member of the US armed forces, regardless of your personal political leaning, we strive to protect and defend Democracy with a capital D. We train our physiques and our minds to "punch nazis"*, that's basically the job description, punch nazis, everything else is making the facility work well so we could run off to punch nazis when the time came.
Is punching a fascist the first thing to do? No, absolutely not. It's not the second or third thing either, there is a reasonable escalation of threat/force that we spent a lot of time learning to work within.
While in the service I was in Auxiliary Security Forces, I went to multiple security academies for law enforcement trainings which included everything we needed to know about de/escalation. Punching isn't at the top of the list.
My time in the military made me walk the talk of my earlier punk years, it gave me foundation of understanding and history of why our fragile democracy is worth standing up to protect from evil doers who are set on limiting our liberties. The military is very progressive in it's systems of equality and justice, (tho it's got room to improve), service members from all walks of life are mostly on the same page, regardless of gender, religion or color, everybody's united in the same mission to protect our constitution. (Whether the military is utilized appropriately by the government is a different discussion, so save it!)
Now, right now, about 45% of this country is a-ok with overturning our flavor of democracy for a veiled form of nationalism, supremacy and fascism that challenges the foundations of our constitution. I hope all of the people I know and love are all solidly in the 47% who disapprove of the actions in motion to radically change our government. (percentages from gallup approval poll 2/2/17). What's happening in the White House right now is dangerous, actually really seriously dangerous and will have long lasting dire consequences. We can't wait to see what'll happen, we can't wait it out, we can't. Now is a time to rise up, really, do anything and everything you can to resist the changes the president is enacting. 1. consider your position on our constitution, and refresh your understanding of our democracy. 2. Decide the level of energy/time/effort you can give and follow through. Everything is under attack here, every one of our intersections is in danger, what's happening affects all of us.
The alt-right are enacting strategy that is has been proven through time to work very effectively in turning public opinion, they are organized and effective. We have to be cognizant of methods being used on social media and be wary, question everything (including this). It's important to cross check sources of current affairs, it's important to form your own opinions, it's important to recognize fake news and viral marketing techniques. Find a balanced media diet of middle of the road news sources and take samples from the left and right. Take some time to listen to social critique from the radio or comedy, comedy is a great source of social critique. This isn't a thing we can ignore and it'll go away.
Now's the time to establish a plan that includes a series actions to engage before punching nazis. And hey maybe it'll get to punching nazis, if you're not the punchy type you can step out of the way when the time comes knowing that you put in good peaceful effort before it got to that. I don't think this is an either or, this may very well be an AND situation.
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Remember that one time at Burning Man when Rangers fried bacon in front of the PETA camp? That was a beautiful display of peaceful demonstration that was exceptionally offensive and an effective way into a difficult conversation after other more traditional attempts were made. I saw vegans eat bacon that day in solidarity with the protest against PETA.
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*Please see that nazi is shorthand for a very complicated set of ideas that were instituted and enforced on a wide scale across the whole of Europe, the third reich was not alone in their campaign against humanity.
Open Culture, a blog that examines cultural critique recently asked some modern philosophers if it's ok to punch nazis, click through to read what they've said here http://www.openculture.com/2017/02/is-it-ok-to-punch-nazis-heres-what-philosophers-and-ethicists-have-to-say.html
Katherine Cross has an opposing opinion, which I'm more inclined to agree with expressed in her piece over at The Establishment, Why Punching Nazis Is Not Only Ethical, But Imperative, "Dispassionate discourse with men like Richard Spencer is not only pointless, but actively dangerous." Yes. Yes it is.
Is punching a fascist the first thing to do? No, absolutely not. It's not the second or third thing either, there is a reasonable escalation of threat/force that we spent a lot of time learning to work within.
While in the service I was in Auxiliary Security Forces, I went to multiple security academies for law enforcement trainings which included everything we needed to know about de/escalation. Punching isn't at the top of the list.
My time in the military made me walk the talk of my earlier punk years, it gave me foundation of understanding and history of why our fragile democracy is worth standing up to protect from evil doers who are set on limiting our liberties. The military is very progressive in it's systems of equality and justice, (tho it's got room to improve), service members from all walks of life are mostly on the same page, regardless of gender, religion or color, everybody's united in the same mission to protect our constitution. (Whether the military is utilized appropriately by the government is a different discussion, so save it!)
Now, right now, about 45% of this country is a-ok with overturning our flavor of democracy for a veiled form of nationalism, supremacy and fascism that challenges the foundations of our constitution. I hope all of the people I know and love are all solidly in the 47% who disapprove of the actions in motion to radically change our government. (percentages from gallup approval poll 2/2/17). What's happening in the White House right now is dangerous, actually really seriously dangerous and will have long lasting dire consequences. We can't wait to see what'll happen, we can't wait it out, we can't. Now is a time to rise up, really, do anything and everything you can to resist the changes the president is enacting. 1. consider your position on our constitution, and refresh your understanding of our democracy. 2. Decide the level of energy/time/effort you can give and follow through. Everything is under attack here, every one of our intersections is in danger, what's happening affects all of us.
The alt-right are enacting strategy that is has been proven through time to work very effectively in turning public opinion, they are organized and effective. We have to be cognizant of methods being used on social media and be wary, question everything (including this). It's important to cross check sources of current affairs, it's important to form your own opinions, it's important to recognize fake news and viral marketing techniques. Find a balanced media diet of middle of the road news sources and take samples from the left and right. Take some time to listen to social critique from the radio or comedy, comedy is a great source of social critique. This isn't a thing we can ignore and it'll go away.
Now's the time to establish a plan that includes a series actions to engage before punching nazis. And hey maybe it'll get to punching nazis, if you're not the punchy type you can step out of the way when the time comes knowing that you put in good peaceful effort before it got to that. I don't think this is an either or, this may very well be an AND situation.
.
.
.
.
.
Remember that one time at Burning Man when Rangers fried bacon in front of the PETA camp? That was a beautiful display of peaceful demonstration that was exceptionally offensive and an effective way into a difficult conversation after other more traditional attempts were made. I saw vegans eat bacon that day in solidarity with the protest against PETA.
.
.
.
.
.
*Please see that nazi is shorthand for a very complicated set of ideas that were instituted and enforced on a wide scale across the whole of Europe, the third reich was not alone in their campaign against humanity.
Open Culture, a blog that examines cultural critique recently asked some modern philosophers if it's ok to punch nazis, click through to read what they've said here http://www.openculture.com/2017/02/is-it-ok-to-punch-nazis-heres-what-philosophers-and-ethicists-have-to-say.html
Katherine Cross has an opposing opinion, which I'm more inclined to agree with expressed in her piece over at The Establishment, Why Punching Nazis Is Not Only Ethical, But Imperative, "Dispassionate discourse with men like Richard Spencer is not only pointless, but actively dangerous." Yes. Yes it is.
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