Justice, Politics

We Need To Talk About Punching Nazis

Should you punch a white supremacist? Should I?

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Richard B. Spencer. (Via Vas Panagiotopoulos)

Richard B. Spencer (Via Vas Panagiotopoulos)

Like many of you, I laughed my ass off when Richard Spencer got punched (twice) at the inauguration. Involuntarily. Watching bad people get punched makes me smile, before my legal and ethical centers kick in. Last night, I watched Berkeley go full Berkeley in protest of Milo Yiannopoulos, and again I smiled broadly before accessing my prefrontal cortex.

Violence is satisfying, but that doesn’t make it right. Violence is wrong, but that doesn’t make it ineffective. Memes of Captain America or Indiana Jones punching Nazis are facile analogies. The problem isn’t calling these people “Nazis,” our homegrown white supremacists are trying to/succeeding at taking over the country by authoritarian force, backed up racial animus. We can drop the niceties about what we call them.

But our fictional heroes fought uniformed Nazis engaged in a shooting war. Our enemies are not there, yet. It’s not like Indy punched out Elsa Schneider. I doubt he’d punch Kellyanne Conway.

However, the alt-jerkoffs are bullies, and everybody’s apocryphal Dad told them that the way you handle bullies is to punch them in the mouth. It’s undeniable that when communications break down, as they have in this country, that violence gets put on the table.

Should you punch a white supremacist? Should I? As we try to answer this question, let’s establish three ground rules for the discussion:

1. I don’t give a damn what effect punching/not punching has on the white supremacist narrative. The fact that Breitbart can “use” acts of violence to promote their own brand of intolerance means nothing to me. I’ve lived around white people for a long time, trust me, they can use anything you say or do and twist it into a story about their own superiority anyway. I don’t live by their narrative, I don’t think you should either.

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It follows, therefore, that I also have no patience for the “if you can punch Nazis, then Nazis can punch [insert affinity group of your choice]” argument. It’s not the same. The fact that some white people think it’s the same just deepens the chasm between me and the MAGAers.

2. Do not come to me with your weak “free speech” concerns. I have serious First Amendment concerns when the government, or its agents, or its funding is used to stamp out expression. But when a private citizen does it, I give zero f**ks. My free speech includes my right to shout over the top of your free speech. You have the right to do it to me. I’ll use my “inside voice” the minute the white supremacists crawl back to the fringe, but I’m not going to sit quietly while they hock their bigoted wares in public.

3. If you punch someone, that’s assault, and you should be appropriately punished for it. If you riot and destroy property, you should be brought to justice. Your motivations can’t change the law. I’ve got no time for the person who wants to punch a white supremacist peaceably talking out of his ass in the street, and then not pay a fine or go to jail for it. Those people LACK the courage of their convictions. If punching another person is so important to you, then you should be willing to pay the price for it. Civil disobedience has consequences, and the truly courageous are willing to suffer those consequences.

All on the same page? Okay.

The obvious practical problem with punching white supremacists is that I don’t have enough fists to shut them up. If punching one or two guys was all it took to stop this madness, I’d do it myself. As Chris Rock might say: what are you going to do, send me to jail where I’d be treated like a hero for the rest of my life? If one punch could stop it, of course I’d do it. It would be IMMORAL for me not to. I’d Django the hell out of these people, if they were all congregated on one plantation.

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Unfortunately, we’re playing an unwinnable game of whack-a-racist. Hit one, two more rise up. They co-opt others to their cause. How many people do you know just from Facebook who you thought were decent people who are now carrying water for white supremacists? Pretty soon, you’re not just punching your enemies, now you’re getting into fisticuffs with former friends. Now the line around “white supremacist” gets blurred. Now you’re punching Sean Spicer, which is like punching a bank teller because Jamie Dimon boned your spouse.

And, not for nothing, but what doesn’t kill people can have the unintended side effect of making them stronger. And what does kill them elevates them to martyrdom. These are not good outcomes.

Punching as a practical strategy just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

But what about as an emotional strategy? What about as a goddamn COPING MECHANISM. Let’s give up the ghost here: the alt-right can’t be “reasoned” with. You can’t reason with someone who doesn’t acknowledge basic factual reality. There is nothing you can say to a person who thinks, say, “immigrants cause crime” or “Islam supports terrorism” or “Trump would have won the popular vote if there wasn’t so much voter fraud.” These are lies. Even arguing these points gives them more credence than they deserve.

The best strategy is to ignore these people, but they make that hard to do. The media won’t ignore them, they keep putting these people on television to spread their lies. The universities won’t ignore, they keep trying to schedule them as speakers. All in the name of an “open discussion” the alt-right isn’t remotely capable of having. Trying to talk to them is like trying to talk about human evolutionary biology with a person who thinks Storks is a documentary.

So you can’t ignore them. You can’t reason with them. And they won’t shut up about how great they are, and how sh***y you and your friends are. I’ve just described every bar fight you’ve ever been in, in your life. If alt-right were a person, he’d be cold-cocked in every establishment below 14th Street.

The bar-fight analogy is where I come down on this issue. I don’t think punching Nazis is an effective political strategy. I don’t think it’s a useful form of protest. I wouldn’t seek out these people for the express purpose of punching them while they drone into a microphone.

But if I’m in my local bar and one of these Richard Spencer types walks in and starts spewing his crap: I’m going to say something. I’m going to make it clear that “we don’t take kindly to folks that don’t take kindly around here.” My mouth hits harder than my fists, so I probably won’t be throwing any first punches any time soon. But that’s my blessing. Should a less loquacious patron choose a different form of argument, I’m not going to waste a lot of my breath talking them down.

I’m not going to punch a Nazi, but I’m willing to. I think that should be enough to register my dissent.

Protests, Violence Prompt UC Berkeley to Cancel Milo Yiannopoulos Event [NBC News]

Earlier: We Are Now In A Cold Civil War

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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