Interesting Links for 22-01-2017

[andrewducker]

Brexit As Expressed Through The Medium Of Aliens Quotes. (tags: aliens funny europe uk ) On The Propriety Of Punching Nazis, An FAQ (tags: violence nazis faq ) You Can Change Your Personality (tags: personality psychology ) On Punching Nazis (tags: law society nazis violence ) Why Trump’s Inauguration is Not the Beginning of an Era - but the

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Yeah. I'm in favor of punching nazis.

[bart_calendar]

Side Note: In France it's completely legal to punch anyone wearing Nazi clothes or saying Nazi shit. You can also simply call the cops on them and they will go to jail for up to five years.

These facts have not led to a huge amount of random people getting punched or jailed because idiots wrongly thought they were Nazis.

[skington]

Citation needed?

Not because I doubt you, but because I want to rejoice.

[luzclarita]

I like California but we should not be the model for a new economy. Silicon Valley is liberal in its words but deeply sexist, anti-worker and cut throat capitalist in its actions. It burns out young people and cares only for the sacrifices that must be made to the gods of technology in the name of progress. Also, people here have come from the rest of the country. It is only success for a few and that cannot be a model for lifting up the many.

[danieldwilliam]

I'm a little conflicted about punching Nazis.

On the one hand I believe in peaceful democratic processes, the rights of individuals to think and say more or less what they like, and that, in most cases the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement is unlikely to be war.

On the other hand, Nazis don't believe any of the those things. They often end up dragging their own country in to a war and that almost always involves some other poor buggers getting dragged in to. Perhaps the best thing to do with Nazis *is* to punch them in the face before there are too many of them and before they've gotten a good hold on political power.

That said, the number of people who are accused of being Nazis is far larger than the number of people who actually are Nazis or the number of people of who might have done, said or thought one or two things in common with an actual Nazi. I'm not sure if, on a utilitarian basis, it's better to punch a few non-Nazis in order to ensure that all the Nazis are punched.

[andrewducker]

It's the last one that gets me - I want people to be found guilty of Nazism because of evidence, and then dealt with appropriately.

(While not feeling even slightly bad when people actively and clearly pushing for genocide get punched in the face.)

[danieldwilliam]

That's the rub. I find it difficult to strike a balance between allowing a small number of people to flirt with Nazism which probably doesn't do much harm (unless you happen to get beaten up by them) against the risk that a small number of people being Nazis suddenly becomes a large number of Nazis.

If I think about punching Nazis in the face as an act of personal justice I'm against it. If I think about it as a vaccine then I'm less sure I'm against it.