Hey, so I have real-world experience with this topic. I can tell you what happened here.
Oregon is a deeply racist state founded on a racist premise; a nigger-free state. Needless to say, historically we have had enormous problems with racism even once the state got to the point of recognizing that the "no blacks allowed" law was an insane farce that couldn't be permitted to continue. Fast forward to the 1980's; white nationalists were operating openly here, seeking to make this area a white nationalist haven. They were attacking people on the streets; blacks, gays, jews, whoever they felt didn't belong in their fantasy of a white utopia. The police were of no help, being racist as fuck themselves and deeply infiltrated by white nationalists.
Some people died. From being beaten to death by Nazis while minding their own fucking business. One of them was a college student from Africa named Mulugeta Seraw. This made national news. This is when things changed.
The local punks had been clashing with the local skinheads for quite some time, and punks had no qualms about punching nazis. Mr. Seraw's death put not only Portland's Nazi problem, but also the punk resistance to the Nazi problem, in front of a lot of eyes. Punks and SHARPs started moving to Portland to punch Nazis.
And things changed. The streets were made safe for, well, me. And everyone else I knew. We could literally get a punk or SHARP escort if we had to walk alone at night. The police didn't help, but they didn't hinder, either, and it was a sea change for Portland culture. IT CHANGED EVERYTHING. Punching Nazis is literally what made Portland what it is today; if that hadn't happened, Portland would never have become a sweet liberal destination town. It wouldn't be safe.
So shut up with the bullshit clueless holier-than-though moralizing, and punch a Nazi today.
This is really, really important.
It's important because up until now I knew NOTHING about Mulugeta Seraw or the actions of punks and SHARPs in Oregon.
It's important because it throws the cold, wet blanket of "Shit That Actually Fucking Happened," also known as history, onto the cloud of fart-gas that is the armchair discussion of whether or not punching Nazis makes us "just as bad as them."
It comes to mind for me especially because Dan Carlin, who I have really grown to respect in the relatively short time I've listened to his content, recently made an episode of his Common Sense series in which he admonishes the political left for condoning the "punching Nazis" memes. It was unsettling to me when I first listened to it, and now it's REALLY jarring because the dude
lives in Oregon and has built his brand around being historically informed and maintaining a perspective grounded in history. So the fact of Mulugeta Seraw's death and the aftermath kind of makes him look, uh, stupid and wrong.
But either he's willfully ignorant, or he's like me: another Well-Intentioned White Guy
TM who apparently needs a couple extra credit-hours on the history of race in America.
