• wagesj45@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    why tf they weren’t getting arrested

    Because being an asshole isn’t illegal in America. And you wouldn’t want it to be, either.

    • quatschkopf34@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Nazis are not only grumpy assholes, they literally want to kill entire groups of people just because of their skin colour or ethnicity. A democracy can‘t tolerate people like that because they themselves are anti-democratic.

      • wagesj45@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Can’t prosecute people for what they think or want, only what they do. And again, you wouldn’t want that to be the case.

        • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You’re getting downvoted, but people just need to imagine that the people in power use that same law to arrest pro-palestinian protesters. You don’t want the government to have the legal authority to arrest you for your opinions.

          That said, it doesn’t mean you as a person have to tolerate Nazis. You don’t

          • wagesj45@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I usually hate being downvoted; it makes me feel dumb. But this is one of those opinions I’m very confident in, so I’ll live with downvotes.

        • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So the genocides need to happen again before we can do anything about them?

          This isn’t thought crime - it’s a group motivated by hate, that has a history of genocide, and previously had to be stopped by the military might of the bulk of the western world. They’re working to recruit and to intimidate, there’s zero value to their existence, and very good reason to stop them.

          What have I missed?

    • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean… There are other models? Being a Nazi publically is illegal in a number of countries. America doesn’t have restrictions on hate speech but Canada does. Here’s how it works here :

      You are totally allowed to express your opinions in private, to other people directly. If you are at my house and call me a slur - still legal. You are a fucking asshole and I am allowed at any time to tell you to leave for any reason and if you refuse to leave my house you are then commiting a completely different arrestable offence.

      But if you take your paint and decide to mark a big swastika on the side of your house or wave a sign with “we should kill ____ people” (for any of the protected categories of people race/sex/sexuality/religion/gender/mental illness etc. ) on an overpass or assemble in a big group white pointy hoods with the express purpose of working yourself up to a genocide. That is illegal.

      It’s the aspect of public expression which makes it illegal.

      Americans tend to think that any checks on their freedom of speech is a sudden descent into 1984 but laws like this have quietly existed on our books for the past 30 years.

      • wagesj45@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That is certainly a way to do it, but I don’t think limiting public expression is good. Bad things done with noble intent are still bad things.

        • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hard disagree. Advocacy for genocide or groups historically known to enact genocide has zero public merit. They deserve no devil’s advocate and literally nothing good comes from treating them as a valid position. At best they have a negative value of contribution to peace, social tolerance and the real everyday mental and physical welfare of people habitually eradicated by genocidal regimes.

          The step these groups require to make their desired outcomes happen is to be normalized and to have the sense that they represent a majority. Allowing them to build concensus and harass their targets in public with the express permission of the law allows that foothold. Sometimes we should agree certain actions don’t belong in the places we share. That public space should reflect a democratic attitude of mutual respect, safety and tolerance.

          • wagesj45@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            And I would argue that if these ideas are gaining any kind of foothold broadly, the rest of the citizenry is abjectly failing to meet their social obligations. Society doesn’t get to just coast; we all have to be out there every day expressing and pushing for what society should be. Make the public square so full of good ideas that the fringe ass holes are drowned out.

            And the harassment that you describe is possible because too many of us don’t engage and make clear by our actions and speech what isn’t socially acceptable.

            It is an uncomfortable idea that the rise in authoritarianism around the world is somehow our fault. No snowflake and avalanches and all that. But if we are sleepwalking into a world where garbage in the public square isn’t fought against by overwhelming numbers of people, we kind of get what we deserve as a whole and everyone suffers, especially those that are disadvantaged. We are responsible.

            And no, it is not good enough to simply hand over the responsibility to “fix” this to the state-sanctioned-violence branch and your local paramilitary police force. The hearts of men can’t be legislated away; they must be won. With hard work and public display. And if we try to coast and just “keep it out of the public” these ideologies will definitely fester in private.

    • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Perhaps being a member of a group that committed a series of genocides, was a military enemy of the and US, and is grounded in nothing but conspiacism and pseudoscience that had to be stopped by the combined military force of half the western world should be illegal.

      The main downside of protecting Nazism is genocide - what’s the upside?

      Would you defend the rise of ISIS in the US for the same reasons, and if not, why not?

      • wagesj45@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        what’s the upside

        That all groups are equally protected under the law, whether you like them or not. I’m sure AIPAC would love to designate supporting the liberation of Palestine a hate crime. I’m sure that corporate lobbyists would love to designate unions as a violent and disruptive organizations.

        Would you defend the rise of ISIS in the US for the same reasons

        If they are committing concrete acts of violence, no. If they rise as a political body, then yes.

        • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Both ISIS and the Nazis have committed a huge amount of violence, yet you defend them - why?

          You don’t see the issue with comparing two groups whose objective is genocide with two groups with fairly specific goals oriented around freedom, which have committed sporadic violence serving those ends?

          For what it’s worth, I place Hamas in the Nazi/ISIS bucket for consistent reasons.

          • wagesj45@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I don’t have to support a group’s actions to still believe they have the same human rights of freedom of speech and thought that others do. There’s a reason that human rights apply to everyone, even prisoners. Even monsters. Stripping away fundamental rights from the “right” people is not a moral stance.

            I defend their human rights for the same reason I defend yours.

            • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You drew the line at violence, but defend the Nazis and ISIS - What’s the bar for unacceptable violence? More than the 17 million people the Nazis killed, obviously, but where is that line?

              • wagesj45@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                I don’t know what you want from me man. To say nazis are bad? No shit, that’s obvious.

                You ask where I draw the line. Between actions and ideas. I can’t make this any more clear.

                Nazi held a sign at a protest? Shitty, but not illegal.

                Nazi hurts someone? Illegal.

                • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I don’t think there’s any doubt the Nazis are bad - which is why they’re a good example. When they’ve had power, they killed millions - the violence has already happened at an incredible scale, but you continue to defend their existence.

                  Surely you don’t propose atomising response to the individual level - that we only react to individual members of openly genocidal groups after they harm/kill someone, otherwise allowing the unhindered operation and growth of those groups?

                  Protecting openly genocidal groups’ speech is akin to protecting individuals’ rights to make death threats (even after they’ve killed a bunch of people) - the speech itself is harmful, intimidating minorities, and it’s a strong indicator of upcoming violence that you can prevent instead of waiting for innocent people to get harassed, attacked, and killed. Conversely, there’s zero social utility to the hate speech other than identifying genocidal cunts that are probably deserving of some violence, for the betterment of society - the ol’ paradox of tolerance.

      • thecrotch@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Would you defend the rise of ISIS in the US for the same reasons, and if not, why not?

        I’d defend someone who’s being arrested for wearing an isis t-shirt

        • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Putting aside the effect of the t-shirt, has that happened (for ISIS or Nazis), or are you making things up to be afraid of?

          Both ISIS and Nazis are terror groups whose explicit goal it is to kill large numbers of people. Their very existence is tantamount to a death threat made against Jews, “sexual deviants”, “lesser races”, the west, socialists, and so on…

          • thecrotch@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            has that happened (for ISIS or Nazis)

            Not in the US that I’m aware of. Nazi t-shirts are banned in Australia, and probably several other countries. I wouldnt say I’m afraid of it but I’m not making it up either.

            Both ISIS and Nazis are terror groups whose explicit goal it is to kill large numbers of people

            You’ll get no argument from me. But wearing a T-shirt or shouting a slogan is a far cry from killing someone. The freedom of speech in the US includes the freedom to hold and express shitty or simply unpopular opinions. It’s a necessary evil in order to prevent things like banning legitimate criticism of Israel.

            • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It’s in Victoria, not Australia wide (and came in response to a huge amount of Nazi fuckery), but that’s beside the point. Even when a Nazi dipshit stood outside a courthouse in Melbourne, next to Tom Sewell, shouted “HEIL HITLER”, while doing a Nazi salute (after appearing in court for attacking 6 backpackers), then shouted “Australia for the white man, heil Hitler.”, there was zero consequences.

              The violence is the ideology. The very simple answer to “This is a slippery slope - where does it stop?” is when it becomes a problem. Protecting genocidal morons is a problem - stopping them is both a moral imperative and social good.