It amazes me how authoritarian people on the left have become with the “punch nazis” or “nazis don’t have a right to free speech” shit. There are so many problems with that mindset I could spend a day talking about it, and no matter how well I explained it I would still be called a nazi for defending free speech, even when I’m on the left myself.

I don’t even know which of all the problems I should start with. There’s the hypocrisy of the people who think free speech only applies to people they agree with; those are the ones whose opinions are into the status quo and are accustomed to be on the censorious side, and don’t realize that THEY can be the ones censored if the mainstream opinion changes. And it changes a lot. What you today think it’s a rational idea tomorrow will offend someone and they will claim you must be censored for having it. Sometimes mainstream opinion makes complete 180s. Sometimes you’re called the shittiest person in the world for defending an idea which 10 years prior was defended by those calling you shit now. And many, many times, the truth of an issue is hidden behind a mask of misinformation, and knowing it will get you branded as evil. Essentially, who decides what’s to censor, who can speak, and who watch the watchers?

Then there are those authoritarians who think it’s completely ok to jail or beat up people for just thoughts, even if those people never commit any act against another person, completely ignoring Non-aggression and proportional response. I had a discussion with some retard who said that not only Nazis, but any homophobic or racist thought should be punished by law. Not acts, not even words, but thoughts. He specifically pointed out that it was ridiculous to not punish someone “just because they’re letting everyone else in peace”; and that’s a literal quote; because, he argued, they MAY commit some violent crime in the future. That’s Minority report but without a machine to see the future. Just jail people (or beat them up), who are not doing anything bad to anyone, because you think that, maybe, at some point of the future, they may commit violence, because of the ideas on their mind, on which they’re not acting upon now. Do these people not read what they write and see that they’re more close to Nazis than those they accuse of? Do they realize that by their own standards, a lot of ideologies, many on the left, or even people with mental problems, should be thrown to jail altogether? Antifas have been showing for quite some time they’re very prone to violence. In fact they’re the first ones to promote it and justify it, so shouldn’t we thrown them in jail before they do anything, just because they identify as antifa? And it’s not like leftist movements haven’t been crashing events and speeches everywhere using illegal methods, including beating people up. Do we jail everyone who shows up to protest and event before they do anything? I think a lot of movements in the left are as hateful and prone to violence as Nazis, do we beat them up just for existing?

And please don’t come to me with that overused fallacy of “One side wants to kill people and the other is just against it” because I can laugh my ass of for days at that. You only need a short look at their banners, their chants or their twitters/tumblrs to see how much hate, prejudice and racism they have for white people, or males, or right wingers, or centrists, or capitalism, or police officers, or almost anyone right of Stalin. They have an ideology they’re trying to push, and they’re willing to be violent for it; they’re not just “against nazis”. I remind you they vandalized some wall with the text “liberals get a bullet too”. I remind you they burned everything they found in their path in Berkley just because they disagreed with a speaker, who by the way wasn’t a nazi. I remind you they take bats and iron bars to “peaceful protests” and open people skulls for just been there. I remind you they try to shut down any event or speech from anyone who says anything they disagree with, no matter if they’re right, left or centrist, branding them as “nazis”. I remind you they try to get fired from their jobs anyone who even makes a joke in twitter. I remind you they’re the ones illegally taking down statues in the same way Isis does, because they offend their beliefs. This is not anything new, it has been escalating for years now, and we’re now at the point where far right wingers ram cars into leftists and far leftists go to baseball practices to shoot republicans or shoot police officers in a protest. Both sides do shitty things; don’t come to me with that high horse crap.

But probably the biggest reason to NOT justify beating up “Nazis” or stopping their free speech, if you’re not willing to accept any of the logical reasons why you should not make exceptions to human rights, is that by doing so you have an insanely high chance of punishing people who are NOT Nazis, because today’s left thinks practically ANYONE is a nazi.

This is one of the things that I dislike the most of my own “side”, one that makes me talk about it even when I agree with the core values. The left has reached a point where it’s completely incapable of any dialogue because they just accuse anyone who has the slightest disagreement, or the slightest deviation from the status quo opinion, of been a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, or a nazi. I’ve seen the most moderate, or the most left wing people been called Nazis or “Extreme right” for small details, for minor differences in opinion that no one in their right mind would call right wing, or hateful, and much less “extreme”. I’ve been called nazi for just saying I support the free speech of someone even if I don’t agree with them. I’ve been called Extreme right by people I agreed in like 99% of an argument, but for that 1% difference. So technically now is completely valid to give me a beating, silencing me and throw me in jail.
But you don’t have just to trust my word I’m not a nazi, you can just take a look at some popular people who are called “Nazis”:

David Rubin: He’s a gay jew liberal. Just so you see how much Left he is, he worked in the Young Turks. TYT is one of the most progressive, far left, places you can find. Dave has tons of videos with moderate and conciliatory messages trying to build bridges between sides. He’s been called “extreme right” and “nazi” because he defends free speech. Just take a look at this guy and tell me if you think this qualifies as “nazi” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M15_ic8b4rk

Laci green: She’s a known feminist who has been telling Social justice rhetoric for years. She has been one of the icons of feminism and social justice in the later years. But some months ago she decided she would do some debates between feminists and anti feminists, to see if we could find points in common. As a consequence she has been excommunicated from feminism and branded a “nazi”. And I don’t mean as in “feminazi”, which is more a mockery to point out how some feminists are very authoritarian. I mean she’s been seriously accused of been a neo nazi who wants people to die. So I guess she gets the bullet too?

Christina Hoff Sommers: She’s a second wave feminist who’s been nicknamed “Based mom” by the internet, because she’s like the perfect kind-hearted mother from tv shows. She’s been trying to help both women and men for decades with her books and lectures and videos, and she’s a registered democrat, but since she has critiques of how third wave feminists act, she’s also been branded a nazi.

I could write a very long list of leftist or moderate people who are branded as Nazis for the most stupid shit, or for not following the line at 100%. It’s quite the move isn’t it? To first justify anything that can be done to a person because “they’re Nazis” and then proceed to label anyone who disagrees with you as “Nazi”, so they’ll just cower in fear and shut up or suffer a punishment. Just in this Charlottesville shitstorm, some antifas misidentified a guy as one of the protesters, doxed him and made his life a living hell, when he was on the other side of the country at the time. Just this week, a guy tried to kill another man because he had a haircut that reminded him of Nazis. One of the creators of Rick and Morty said recently that he thinks that ONE THIRD of the United States are Nazis. One third. That estimate is so completely absurd that you could only say it if you’re mentally handicapped, if you’re deep into a dogmatic cult, or if you’re purposely trying to start a civil war (which is exactly what the guy did in the video). Even nazi Germany didn’t have so much Nazis; most people were just afraid of putting a fight against their own oppressive government. I haven’t found numbers for Nazis, but the estimate is that there are about 5000 KKK members in the U.S. (and it’s a generous estimate considering it was made by the South poverty law center, a group that brands everything that’s not far left as a “hate group”), so I think it’s fair to consider the number of Nazis must be about those numbers. The United States has a population of 326 million people. Do the math.

Antifa is just using the word “Nazi” to beat anyone they feel like it. There are a lot of videos of journalists, or even just bystanders, getting beat up or thrown out of the place with insults and shoves, or getting their equipment stolen, because one antifa points at them and shouts “he’s a Nazi!” and from that point onward everything they do to him is justified. There have been a lot of speakers, who were not Nazi, whose speeches had to be cancelled due to violence from protesters who just accused them of been Nazis and then felt justified to burn the universities down to make them leave.

If you’re not willing to accept any of my first arguments about why you should not punch non-violent Nazis, accept at least that you should not do it because most probably than not, the victim is going to NOT be a Nazi, and in fact the victim could be YOU.