When I first signed up, you all clocked me for what I was: a troll. But a few of you actually understood the joke: that my intention was to hold to you a mirror-image caricature of the seemingly addicted-to-violence mentality that pervades this board.
oh yeah, I said this:
Alright let me put on my goggles. The "IPunchNazis" character is playing on the recent liberal uptick in antifascist violence. Essentially, satirizing the enthusiastic liberal nazi puncher who is swept up by the chest pumping tribal machismo which antifascism lets him express dot dot dot, implying antifascist violence is more or less equivalent to fascism, dot dot dot, liberals are cuck hypocrites who only take a moral high ground against certain kinds of violence, etc etc. Okay that's basically the end point, right?
I merit there might be bait here for that argument. I would be curious to hear what the person playing this character thinks the proper use of violence is, like, how do you distinguish between "good" and "bad" violence? I would love to have that talk but I think they need the mask, so all we get is this kinda uninspired caricature troll.
eh what can you do
so I guess you're here for the latter part now? that's cool, I can roll with that.
Bottom line? Well, I sure like the idea of nonviolence, but I'm also not convinced that it can always solve things on its own. Nonviolent appeasement of Hitler sure didn't work.
So I now must admit that I have to consider that the aggressive and confrontational element is a necessary evil, so to speak, and that the problem cannot be resolved (I.E. the alt-right's agenda defeated) without it. Perhaps the far-right has indeed become a very real threat with another civil war on the horizon.
I am still, however, surprised to see so many Discordians hungry to participate in the violence. Are there any of you, like me, who aren't? Who would, if anything, attempt subvert it instead of willfully helping to immanentize it?
I appreciate the straightforward chat. I hadn't really thought much about antifa in the context of how Malcolm X slid the Overton Window left.
My perspective is - I don't think that violence is an effective long run strategy. What I've observed is that violent action is super effective as a recruitment tool for "the other side". It doesn't change minds. If I got punched in the face for my political beliefs, I wouldn't stop believing those things. In fact, I would probably justify them harder. If I continually feared bodily harm, I'd just go underground and get louder.
Punching nazis is forgivable when they are advocating violence & actively recruiting. Punching the peaceful but angry guy standing near the nazi--mainly counterproductive.
On a more emotional level - One of my pet research hobbies is the history of torture. I keep this close to my heart: For thousands of years, we lined up in public squares to cheer as the "bad guys" were subject to horrific ordeals. That was "justice". That desire - to see the bad guy bloodied and dragged through the streets - is one of the scariest things about humanity. Especially when its expressed by a crowd. We all have these brutal impulses, and live in a society that conditions us not to act on them. But when somebody "deserves it", we are chomping at the bit for the opportunity to unleash hell on them. I try to guard myself against this kind of 'pleasurable' violence, and warn others not to feed it.
((
The Crowd at the Ball Game))
That being said
Violence was already playing a role in the larger conversation. Not to focus too hard on the rallies, specifically - but there are a lot of people out there who
are in fear of bodily harm on the daily. For example, I have trans friends who live in Texas, and they are regularly subjected to hostile harassment on the street and other public places. Using a public rest room is a scary moment for them right now. They have a public facing job and consequently receive lots of transphobic threats. Knowing that if a public incident happened, there would be people willing to fight
for them - that's a good thing.
On the side - I'm not a fighter, myself. I haven't thrown a real punch since college. I imagine I would get laid out in any fight I was in. This probably plays a role in how much violence I advocate
