On punching Nazis

[JCanete]

61. It's not about being all hippy though. This is clearly an impossible conversation to have at

a philosophical level, because everybody is way too triggered to do so, and I get that that goes with the territory. . I try to be consistent myself, so I weighed in here for that reason. I don't believe in corporal or capital punishment. I don't believe in punishment as the best way to teach anything. I don't get my jollies off of revenge or inflicting righteous suffering. On some level I can appreciate a Nazi getting punched in the face, and there's no way I'm going to condemn that guy for doing it. But where I get uncomfortable is where we start proudly advocating for that violence as a response to violence, not as a defense against it. I disagree with it. You might have very good reasons for not disagreeing with it, but of course, that seems to be an impossible conversation for us to have, if we're to take this thread as an example.

That doesn't mean I don't have less than kind thoughts. When the Oakland fire that burned down that art studio happened, I admit it, I was like, "why couldn't that have been a young republican's convention..." Its not something I'm likely to repeat in the public because this attitude and language does not foster empathy and humanity. Sure, I could justify my perspective, but it gets into the territory of making judgements about some life being worth more than other life. This is how everything gets justified. This is how we humans do it.