Opinion

The perils of ‘Nazi-punching’

Last week, a man was spotted wearing a red swastika armband while riding on a Seattle city bus. A bystander took his photograph and posted it online along with his location. This mobilized antifa to find the man and confront him, resulting in his being punched in the face and knocked out cold.

A video of the interaction went viral and, predictably, the Internet cheered. And this was just the latest in a series of videos over the last few months of white supremacists getting punched in the face, to the joy of the watching public.

Indeed, this kind of thing is happening so often that the phrase “punching Nazis” is now part of our lexicon. Yet unfortunately, what’s actually happening is speech is being shut down with violence — threatening a fundamental American right. Sure, the speech might be vile and hateful, but it’s still just speech.





The ugly fact is, a growing segment of the population now equates simple speech with violence — and sees real violence as a justified response. Mild-mannered conservative Ben Shapiro needed $600,000 in extra security to speak at Berkeley; imagine if an actual Nazi tried to speak there.

Fighting white supremacist speech with more speech, rather than blows, is essential — or they win. Punches accomplish little and, in fact, can further the white-supremacist cause.

Heck, getting a reaction is part of their game. Punching them makes them appear like the sane ones caught in a world of insanity. When they tell us America has stopped being great, they show us evidence in the violence their speech produces.

Surely an America that is strong and confident won’t condone violence against a tiny group of people with whom it disagrees.





OK: I’m not immune from the feel-good sensation of watching someone I consider horrible get smacked. I admit to watching a loop when Richard Spencer was caught on video taking a hit shortly after President Trump’s inauguration.

I admit it: Watching Nazis get clocked feels good. It’s normal to think their vile views deserve to be silenced. Still, stopping words with violence is something Americans need to condemn.

Alas, YouTube has posted dozens of videos of the Seattle strike, some with hundreds of thousands of views. Is there another crime of violence YouTube would so readily allow to be shared on its platform?

After Spencer was socked, The Nation ran a story titled “Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer Got Punched — You Can Thank the Black Bloc.” An Observer op-ed actually argued the attack was “self-defense.”





Are we really comfortable with antifa, or any mob, playing judge and jury like this? Who’s to say they won’t expand their scope to include perfectly reasonable people who happen to disagree with them on, say, health-care or immigration policy?

And let’s be honest: At one point or another, just about all conservatives are branded Nazis. George W. Bush was constantly referred to as Hitler, both by protesters and by many mainstream figures, including Rep. Keith Ellison, now No. 2 at the Democratic National Committee.

Paul Krugman’s “The Great Unraveling” featured Dick Cheney with a Hitler-like mustache made of oil. In 2008, John McCain and Sarah Palin were both likened to Nazis. Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Nikki Haley — pretty much any Republican on the national stage has been called Hitler or Goebbels or Eva Braun.





Does every Republican deserve to be punched?

And don’t think violence won’t beget more violence. White supremacists, after all, aren’t likely to take blows without fighting back. And they might well go beyond just fists. That’s the road we’re on.

I’m a Jew of Eastern European descent, and actual Nazis are responsible for the displacement and annihilation of part of my family. Defending the free speech of their modern-day counterparts, who marched through the streets of Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us,” is hard — but necessary.

But, truth is, these creeps actually need to be protected if we are to preserve a bedrock right that helps guarantee the essence — and future — of this country.

The irony is that white supremacists are eager to erode our freedoms and our proud American character. Why cheer for thugs like antifa, who help them do that?





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