➢From the passion of our convictions, convinced we are on the road to heaven, we miss the mark by a fraction of an inch and rush straight into the bowels of hell and the open grasp of our most powerful demons.
Well hold on there just a minute. Even in that sentence alone there's a lot of assumptions to unpack, and I'm concerned with what is being said, no matter how morally upright it may feel.
Nazis can be generally viewed as one of two things: a people group (roughly: Germany's culture, political power structure, and military complex as realized through the second world war), and and the underlying ideology that was used to justify their actions.
If you tell me that the best way to beat an army is to kill it, I might be inclined to agree with you there - and if you could resurrect the Nazi army from the dead I might be inclined to go on an Indiana-Jones-esque Nazi hunt with all the murder you could dream of.
...oh wait, no I wouldn't. And if you have a machine that can raise people from the dead, maybe you have better things to do than to fantasize about being a murderer.
Oh, you're not a murderer? Make sure to tell the judge that with extra conviction as you try to explain just how you designed your mind reading machine which can tell the difference between asshole LARPers who post on Stormfront for fun from the real deal, genuine Nazis.
Wait, you don't have a machine that can read minds either? At least try a magic eight ball, you can get them for cheap off Amazon, and it's more accurate than AntiFa has been in the past year.
But sure, let's keep talking about this.
The neoNazis in America have no power, social/political or otherwise, and are in absolutely zero danger of becoming powerful, no matter how long [political leader who we pretend is also a moral leader for what I can only assume to be incredibly stupid reasons] may take to condemn them. Our society simply wouldn't tolerate it. Free speech of the most heinous kind, we will tolerate. Actual murderous action, not so much. We know this because we were already tested on it once, and the entire nation leaped to battle to fight the original Nazis (albeit a bit later in the fight than may have been morally justifiable... but that's a different topic.)
If on the other hand, if you tell me that the only way to defeat the ideology of Nazism is to kill those people with those ideas, my instant reaction is to say "Here's your beer back Stalin, you' won't be showing me jack shit." Not only are you suggesting the introduction of thought crimes as an actual category in the criminal code, but you're suggesting the DEATH PENALTY for certain thought crimes, which to me is insane; we've seen where that road's led to many times, and every time it has led into the pit of hell, morally and physically - and even culturally speaking.
Pro-tip: If Stalin bragged about it, it's probably a bad idea.
But even on the practical side, it's not plausible to enforce without killing far more innocents than the guilty. How do you discern an ACTUAL Nazi from some jackass LARPer who thinks that posting on stormfront and throwing "heil Hitler" salutes at statues is super edgy and cool? Or for that matter, people who are merely guilty of being at the rally merely to see what's going on? We've already seen dozens of people seriously injured and sent to the hospital merely for being present at rallies, so this is a VERY serious question to consider. Right now the label "Nazi" is being thrown at people from multiple view points. Dave Reuben (a gay centrist political pundit) has been called a Nazi. Milo Yiannopoulos (a gay Jew currently engaged to a black man) has been called a Nazi. This word is being thrown around with such wanton abandon that nearly anyone can be called a Nazi at this point, even for merely saying "I believe in free speech and don't want to forcibly silence Nazis. I'd rather see their ideas trashed in the public arena."
...and you want to attach a DEATH PENALTY to that label?
"But we have a death penalty for the label of 'murderer!'" You might say. And you're right, we do. Also, the average time spend on death row is 13 years. Unfortunately, that's a bit longer than it takes in your fantasy of killing Nazis, but this is your fantasy, not mine. "But Nazis were worse than murderers!" No, Nazis are murderers. Well, the ones from the 1940s, anyways. PS, those Nazis are already dead.
What a terrible irony to be had, isn't it? For the fear of a people group seizing power, we are urged to
Huh, how did those typos get there? Something about how tyranny looks for any excuse, including the tyranny of others? Screw that, I'm sure you're totally morally justified; it's not like Hitler wrote a whole book morally justifying his own decisions to go on a genocidal murder-spree or anything. Wait, he did? Shit.
"But this isn't tyranny! It's self-defense!" Was the neoNazi pushing you into an oven? Shoving you in a cattle car? Forcing you to carry a bag of wet salt back and forth in a death camp clouded in the odor of moral decay and suffering? No, he was just saying stupid things? Then he wasn't attacking you, and YOU are the aggressor.
But there's one final thing to point out. And if nothing else, it is THE reason why you shouldn't punch a Nazi, let alone kill them:
One of the founding principles of Western Civilization is that of free speech. When you suggest not just the silencing, but the outright murder of people for what they say, you will force free speech advocates into the hated position of having to defend Nazis. Aligning yourself against the very spirit and will of Western Civilization is a losing battle. Not convinced? Ask Nazi Germany how well their battle went.
In the meantime, check your mailbox for a thank-you note from the nearest Nazi enclave. They want you to know how much they appreciate you pushing them into the media spotlight. After all, how else are they supposed to get new recruits?
#caring
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