[lisarea]

I'm all for escalating, basically, rudeness. I might have mentioned this before, but someone somewhere said that we're more socialized to react to breaches in etiquette than to actual injustice. And I mean everyone. There are all kinds of just loathsome shitstains walking around among us skating along, aided by our aversion to rudeness, and that needs to stop right now.

So my personal policy is something like this:

If someone is just plain ignorant, I am going to do my best to tell them instead of just ignoring them or changing the topic, which is what I would normally do.

If someone is being straight racist or sexist or xenophobic, I am going to tell them to fuck off. Any n-bombs get f-bombs, especially if it's someone's granny. There's a specific subset of pearl clutching schoolmarms who like to play like they're shocked just shocked at people addressing them impolitely when they endorse disgusting, racist, sexist ideas. They don't get to do that anymore. You got get to vote for that guy and then act all shocked and chide people when they offend your sense of decorum. They no longer have any legitimate claim to decorum.

Literally advocating genocide isn't just speech. It's an incitement to horrific violence, and it should be treated as such. If someone is displaying a swastika or other Nazi imagery in public, or if, like Spencer, they're a known advocate for genocide, I consider that violence, and I consider it totally appropriate to punch that person. I don't think it should be legal to punch them, but I would be A-OK with adopting more European style laws regarding Nazi sympathizing and Holocaust denial, and possibly extending some to confederate imagery as well. But I am in favor of illegally punching people in the head for Nazi-ing in public and I would not cooperate in any investigation into Nazi punching if I were to witness it. (Just this minute, I switched tabs and looked at my news headlines, and they had to evacuate a nearby Jewish community center because of a bomb threat. Again.)

But I'm also pretty heartened by how little violence there has been at the protests so far. The Womens Marches were huge, and there was probably less violence in those areas than there would have been on a normal day. For the most part, people aren't just running around physically attacking people for no reason, and I would not be for that if they were.

I am very specifically in favor of punching Nazis, because punching is the least violent type of communication that works on them. It makes them shut the fuck up, it makes them run away, and it makes them afraid to advocate Nazi ideology in the future. And if you let them speak without fear of punching, it sends a powerful message to other racists and wannabe edgelords that Nazi ideologies are on the spectrum of normal, appropriate ideas.

The Overton window is jammed, and it needs a few solid punches to close it right now.