What's Different About Nazis

[LittleRaven]

I don't care if, allegedly, nobody on this forum is defending Nazis, because you know who IS defending Nazis? THE PRESIDENT OF A NUCLEAR-CAPABLE NATION!

Ah. Yes, that is upsetting. You have a great deal of company in your frustration, on both sides of the political aisle.

But trampling on the First Amendment won't help with that particular problem. Trump, for all of his idiocy, will be gone in 3 (or god forbid, 7) years. The First Amendment will endure...for as long as we're willing to defend it.

[GandALF]

I don't care if, allegedly, nobody on this forum is defending Nazis, because you know who IS defending Nazis? THE PRESIDENT OF A NUCLEAR-CAPABLE NATION!

I put this in the other thread, maybe you didn't see it:

The contemporary U.S. is in no way comparable to the Wiemar republic. It was a new democracy with weak institutions and crippled by economic woes, it was not a centuries old superpower. Most Germans were not used to democracy, they did not have the importance of individual liberty drummed into them all their lives. Autocracy and militarism was the norm going back to Prussia being founded by Teutonic knights. Authoritarianism, militarism, nationalism and rhetoric about superiority were all features of the Kaiserreich. The Nazi ideals were not new and radical fringe ideas, they were familiar ideas that were just modernised with Nietzchean pessimism and pseudo-socialism. Hitler did not have to be subtle or coy and use "dogwhistles".

The U.S. does not have these traditions. Even the confederacy was a slaver's constitutional oligarchy and not an autocracy. A lot of the "lost cause" myths even try to downplay or deny the slavery cause and put the emphasis on individualism and rebellion. The Nazis would not do this.

Trying to paint people who are pro-free speech and anti-violence as somehow being Nazi sympathisers is absurd. Free speech did not lead to the rise of the Nazis. People believing free speech was unimportant did.

[Antiboyscout]

You cannot be a Nazi ironically.

Here we have a major problem. How many comedians have been painted with the "promoting hate" brush do to Nazi parody? Pew Die Pie comes to mind.

So, actual Nazis, people who pretend to be a Nazi on the internet, and comedians that use Nazi symbolism in their bits are all the same.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Gandalf, president 45 was not defending free speech. He was defending NAZIs. Not saying "they have the right to talk", he was saying "some of them are good people".

[GandALF]

Gandalf, president 45 was not defending free speech. He was defending NAZIs. Not saying "they have the right to talk", he was saying "some of them are good people".

I'm not denying that, but there is still no need freak out. The Charlottesville murderer is in jail. Violence or censorship is not necessary and there are no tanks rolling into Poland. The checks and balances and the media are making sure the orange buffoon can't get away with anything.


youtu.be/CF8lzCL5ncE

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Any amount of Nazis waving flame around is too damn much for my comfort, especially when their man is in the white house with a same-party congress and leverage in the Court. It's horrifying that it even got this far. I don't want to have to SEE what "really bad" looks like.

[LittleRaven]

Any amount of Nazis waving flame around is too damn much for my comfort

Clearly...but...and please understand I mean this in the best possible way...the Serenity Prayer applies here.

You are obviously doing everything in your power to stop this movement from spreading. That's admirable, and you should continue doing that for as long as you feel you must. But for your own sanity, you need to accept that there is a great deal about this that is outside of your power. You are one individual among hundreds of millions, many of whom disagree with your most basic assumptions about life. You can try to change their minds, and maybe, if you work really, really hard at it, you'll sway a few over your lifetime, but the pit of human stupidity is damn near bottomless as far as I can tell. At some point, you simply have to be content that you've done what you can, and hope for the best. Things are usually all right in the end. You can't let yourself get complacent, but you can't lose faith either.

[The Romulan Republic]

No, you can't be a communist without enacting Stalin-esque great purges. If you want proof, ask any communist what they think of the Kulaks. You ether get more stutters out of them than a crack addict in the middle of the arctic circle or they will come right out and say those greedy f*kers deserved to die.

This is patently false. Stalinism (and, for that matter, Marxism) are specific types of communism, not synonymous with all communism. And even those who believe in more extreme forms of Communism don't necessarily act violently on those beliefs.

It is probably fair to say that you cannot make communism work on a large scale without a level of force sufficient to qualify as despotism, however. At least, all historical evidence thus far leads towards that conclusion.

[Admiral X]

No one here is defending Nazis, they're defending freedom of speech. You get human rights for being human. That is the only requirement. You respect their humanity. Not their views. This is BASIC liberalism.

Exactly the crux of the matter, which is a point so many people here and elsewhere seem to not be getting. I mean, their declaring anyone who disagrees with them a Nazi aside and all that. Plus, they seem to be living in a fantasy world where free speech also means being able to break the law with impunity. Then again, I seem to remember one of the posters on here conflating beating someone up as a form of free speech, so I suppose that shouldn't surprise me too much.

[The Romulan Republic]

No, beating people up is not free speech, though I'd like a source for someone here arguing that if you don't mind.

Then again, neither is money, and our courts condoned that. But they really shouldn't have.