(Untitled)

[benchilada]

You thought I was kidding about how evil Hal Turner is?
You thought he's a simple ultra-right racist blowhard?

Comments

[zentiger]

What do you suggest we do, Ben? Seriously. Should we go to his rally and out-shout him? Should we decry and revile his message from soapboxes on street-corners?

Hal Turner does evil things. This is a good example. This point is not, as far as I know, in question. What I question is: how do you fight hatred? Fiery rhetoric and short stories about shooting mass murderers in dive bars don't make people hate less, no matter how stirring or well-presented.

Should we forbid the hateful from spewing their hate? From organizing groups to fight their particular targets? Do we bring to bear all our righteous anger, the fury of the wronged innocent? Righteous anger is a dangerous thing: it fuels our hatred of evil just as it fuels Hal Turner's hatred of "negroes".

Go on. Shout in the streets. Try to drown out the hate. But, in the end, an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.

[iamangelachase]

But if everyone is blind, how can we tell who's who?

[zentiger]

That's easy. Braille nametags.

[iamangelachase]

Damn it, you think of everything.

[benchilada]

A) Sweetloveforallmankindanswer: when were all blind, bay-bee, it'll be all, like, wow, we're all the same.

B) Pithyanswer: by the different sounds different people make when we kick them.

[benchilada]

Oh Erik...you know I love you. But you start by giving a damn. I know you're a philosophy major, but there's a difference between asking a question and being an ass. Honestly, let me return the question and ask YOU how YOU fight hatred? Or do you not at all, simply advocating the Elmer Fudd rule of "If I don't know about gravity, it can't hurt

[mujina]

In response to the question of how you fight hatred, I'd like to say that there are many ways to spread love and understanding that do something to fight hatred. Personally I feel the Hal Turners are just symbols of larger problems that must be dealt with from the ground up. Does his vile thetoric make me angry? Yes, I can tolerate everything except intolerance. One can fight hatred without meeting it head on, by engaging in other activities that foster brotherhood and unity of mankind. I am not saying that other methods are bad, just that people do things about it in different ways.

[kraven251]

This may be imflamatory, it is not the intention.

How do you fight hatred. Peace, love, education and singing kumbaya, all good methods that have a tendency to work. When those fail you get wonderful film clips of tanks rolling over human skulls. You fight hatred the same way you fight any disease, you treat the symptoms, look for possible long term cures, but sometimes you take a scapel and cut it out.

[zentiger]

Oh Erik...you know I love you.

With that special, explodey kind of love, no less. Of course.

But you start by giving a damn. I know you're a philosophy major, but there's a difference between asking a question and being an ass.

I'm really not trying to be an ass here. I just think that getting angry about these things is a dangerous first step to take. As Ridgely pointed out last week, anger can be helpful - but as we all know too well, it can get out of hand.

Honestly, let me return the question and ask YOU how YOU fight hatred? Or do you not at all, simply advocating the Elmer Fudd rule of "If I don't know about gravity, it can't hurt?"That's some cold shit, man. Seriously. I, as you pointed out, am a philosopher. I teach philosophy. I fight hatred with sweet reason, by taking my opponent seriously and trying to understand his arguments. It doesn't always work, partly because I get to people later in life than is optimal for this sort of thing, but once in a while it does

[zentiger]

Also, where I said I give money to tolerance.org, I meant the Anti-Defamation League, but for some reason my brain has the stupids today.

[zentiger]

I like that idea. I really do.