Neo-Nazis: Are We Overthinking This?
We all struggle to understand the neo-Nazis. Is this some form of mental illness, exacerbated by mob rule? How do these people consider themselves a “master race?” Is this a genetic mutation gone horribly wrong? The result of bad parenting or a failed educational system?
Maybe we’re all working too hard at this. It could be that there’s no real answer, but that understanding the problem isn’t required to solving it. Can’t we simply use our legal system to lock up these lawbreakers as we would prosecute any other form of violent criminal activity?
Second degree murder with a motor vehicle? 30 years – life. See you in 2040 if you’re lucky. Be sure to write your momma. Next!
Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon? You’ll have 10 – 15 years to learn how to fight off people whose race offends you, some of whom may think you look pretty fetching in your little orange jumpsuit. Of course, you won’t have that baseball bat you used to smash people’s bones in the riot, so good luck with that. So long. Next!
With all the irrefutable video evidence of assault and battery, rioting, vandalism, hate crimes, terrorism, etc., a great many of the white supremacist morons in Charlottesville should be sent away for a long time. Maybe the prison psychologists can figure out what deep-seated motivations drove them to violence. Maybe not. Who cares? I sure don’t. Just get them out of here.
Doing this accomplishes two important things simultaneously:
• It’s a demonstration to people of all ages and all races that equal protection under the law (14th Amendment) actually means something in the U.S. Native Americans in North Dakota won’t be wondering why they got pepper-sprayed for protecting their water, when the police stood around watching white people drive their cars into those with differing ideas in an effort to “take their country back.” Law-abiding black people in Baltimore will experience a renewed belief in their country when they see white policemen hauling off violent white felons by the busload.
• It’s a message to Klansmen everywhere: commit a crime and you’ll be in prison for a very long time. We already lock up 2.3 million people here, so Lord knows that another couple thousand sick freaks isn’t going to put any real additional strain on the system.
No one, even the subhumans under discussion, likes getting locked up. Look at this neo-Nazi crying when he realizes there’s a warrant out for his arrest.
Btw, can someone explain how waving a Nazi flag is protected by the First Amendment right to free expression, given that it’s tantamount to making a threat? It’s no different than waving a banner that reads: “If you’re not white, I’m here to harm you.” Once we realize that and categorize this behavior as the crime that it is, we take a great deal of these people off the street before they ever pick up their cudgels and torches.
As usual, we don’t need new laws, extraordinary solutions, or amazing breakthroughs in ingenuity. We need common sense, and the swift and fair application of law.
Our kids are watching. So is the rest of the world (during the moments that they’re not doubled-over, vomiting in disgust).
Craig,
You’re right, you are over-reacting. In a nation of 326 million people, extremists of every kind are going always going to exist.
Violent extremists, are just that, violent extremists.
It doesn’t matter what the nature of the cause they espouse, they all have one thing in common, fear,insecurity and impotence.
Hatred begets hatred. It doesn’t matter what the cause, because none of these misanthropes has anything positive or even rational to contribute. They thrive on publicity and deliberately provoke irrational reactions to their antics from otherwise sensible people, to justify their behaviour.
The idea of being a modern day, Nazi in America, is silly. National Socialism was a phenomenon unique to a period of German history. Just dressing up in period costume no more makes you a Nazi than dressing in period costume as a Jacobite would restore the Royal House of Stewart.(It just makes them pathetic idiots).
The white supremacist,neo-nazi’s etc, have opposite numbers in the ranks of violent ultra left militia, anarchists, would be Marxist-Lenist revolutionaries, and all sorts of trouble makers advocating various forms of intolerance and violent protest. They are all enemies of a tolerant, cohesive democracy.
As Martin Luther King Jnr pointed out, the only way to defeat hatred, is to remove the fear and insecurity, to give, not take away. Convert your enemies, not crush them.
The real tragedy is when ordinary citizens, like yourself, start demanding a limit to free expression for some groups, instead of evenhandedly condemning all violent behaviour as unacceptable.
Locking up only people whose beliefs you dislike, is a very dangerous slippery slope. A violent offender in a ‘good’ cause, is no different than a violent offender in a “bad’ cause. The law should make no distinction. It’s the violence that’s the offence, not the belief.
However misguided, many of those present were feeling a genuine sense of loss and oppression. Those who were there to ensure their defeat with violence, weren’t defending anything. They came to demand the humiliation of their perceived enemies, leaving their bitter and resentful.
Sadly, at Charlottesville, all the extremists won. With the politically correct outpouring of media outrage and posturing by sanctimonious public figures, the message of Martin Luther King was forgotten, and in a media frenzy, hatred won the day.
Thus it’s always been with Crusades. The self-righteous triumph with the battle cry “We won’t tolerate, intolerance”!
White supremacists in modern America are a tiny fringe group, rendered impotent and irrelevant by the tide of history and modern economics. In the same way all extremist groups become irrelevant, except in sensationalized media reports.
A while ago I witnessed an exchange between an idealist young student activist and an older curious bystander.
Cried the student in a lather of outrage and indignation, “Black lives matter” ! The bystander inquired,”don’t all lives matter ?”. The student replied, ” fascist racist “!
Your article is a little reminiscent of the young student. It’s all too easy to be caught up in righteous anger, not realizing you have become what you profess to oppose.
A legislator from Nevada indignantly proclaimed his father went to war against Nazi Germany to fight racism, conveniently forgetting it was 1948 before Truman enacted Executive Order 9981 , desegregating the US armed forces.
There is too much emphasis on ‘symbolism’ and not enough on ‘substance’. Removing a statue with not change anyone’s life. A one citizen of West Virginia remarked to me today, why not just erect a whole series of statues in the park, including to Martin Luther King jnr, Edgar Allan Poe, John Grisham , William Faulkner.
Other notables, like Yvonne B. Miller,Sgt. Charles Veal,could be included. The park could serve a monument to progress, rather than correct political symbolism.
“Locking up only people whose beliefs you dislike?” Really? No, I suggest locking up violent criminals, regardless of my regard for their ideologies. I think you can grasp the distinction to be made there.
Craig,
If misjudged you, I apologize.
I assumed since you didn’t include in your comments the violent elements among the ultra left and anarchists, agent-provocateurs etc, (including armed militia), you approved of such people.
In that case I’m in whole heated agreement ! However, I’m not convinced simply locking people up is really effective. Experience has shown, long harsh terms of imprisonment are ineffective as a deterrence and don’t help rehabilitation.
I like the Swiss motto, “Switzerland has no criminals, only citizens who committed crimes”.
I’ve always believe that except in extreme cases, rehabilitation is better than retribution.
The death penalty and brutal institutions full of prisoners serving crushingly long sentences, hasn’t help the US to be a better society, or lowered the crime rate.
I think the point I made in a previous post about Statues of Oliver Cromwell (a far more unpleasant guy than Robert E Lee, ask the Irish), is valid.
Two of my ancestors died fighting Cromwell, another was executed by his order, while other family members fought for the parliamentary cause only to be “purged’ by Cromwell.
But he’s a very important part of UK history, so his statue remains. In a way, like Lee, his statue serves as a reminder of his defeat and his part in the pageant of history.
I like the idea of my W.Virginian acquaintance, by adding other statues to the park, every citizens of Virginia can take pride in the march of progress, while reminding ourselves of the lessons of history.
The danger of removing Confederate Statutes, is instead of remembering these soldiers who fought so valiantly for a doomed cause,as anachronisms of a lost era, you revive old hatreds among disgruntled malcontents and trouble makers.