See, THAT’S how it’s done

The following Tweet from chairman of the Democratic coalition Jon Cooper appeared today:

“After alt-right organizers saw huge counter protests in Boston, they’ve canceled 67 America First rallies scheduled in thirty six states.”

It’s what I’ve been saying all along: the answer to free speech is always more free speech. Kudos to the people of Boston for doing exactly the right thing and organizing counter rallies to these Nazi/White supremacists áššhølëš and saying, “Not in our city. Not in our country.” That is the purest essence of free speech. Great going, guys.

PAD

12 comments on “See, THAT’S how it’s done

  1. More like, thank you, Black Lives Matter Boston for orchestrating the counter protest. If it wasn’t for them , many would have gone and tried to create chaos versus the organized march that it was.

  2. It’s great to hear it. To see Nazis loose in the 21th century is so scary that one forgets that they’re actually a very small group (albeit one with powerful connections and powerful enablers right now).
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    Just two things:
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    1) I really wish people stopped using “alt-right”, a term crafted by White Supremacists to appear cooler and more acceptable. If you don’t want to call them Nazis (because, honestly, not all of them are Neo-Nazis) use Extreme Right, Far-Right or White Nationalists.
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    2) Isn’t scary when the crazies are actually right about something? Trump announces troop increases in Afghanistan, the “liberal” press that never saw an American war they didn’t love (yes, even Bush’s Iraq fiasco was cheered on in the beginning) suddenly see Trump as “Presidential” and the only ones bashing Trump are the Far-Right press.
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    Bizarre. Then again, the extreme right seems to be the only folks in the American right that have a sensible view of economic issues too (even though their version of the welfare state would be a whites-only travesty).

    1. If you don’t want to call them Nazis (because, honestly, not all of them are Neo-Nazis)
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      sigh
      Why do people insist on mincing words? Is it that they’re worried about offending someone. For gods’ sakes, Why would anyone not want to call Nazis… Nazis?
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      “not all of them are Neo-Nazis” is a distinction without a difference. The same argument could be made they aren’t all any of the terms you came up with as alternatives.
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      They march with self-proclaimed Nazis and that’s all that needs to be known. Nazi is an appropriate name for them.

      1. Fair enough. Personally, I have no trouble calling a Nazi anyone willing to march alongside chanting, saluting Neo-Nazis. People who gotta the stomach for THAT have no call to act offended.
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        “The same argument could be made they aren’t all any of the terms you came up with as alternatives.”
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        I dunno, I think “extreme right” or “far right” would also apply to every single one of the people willing to march in “Unite the Right” or “America First” or whatever they call it.

      2. Why not? Uh, because they aren’t?
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        I know, it has become fashionable to call people we don’t like ‘Nazis’. But let us not forget that what it really stands for is “National Socialist German Workers’ Party” and how many of those far-right loons are within FTL radio range of ‘socialism’? Calling someone or something by a label doesn’t necessarily make it so.

      3. Sure “Nazi” has become a catch-all for folks you disagree with. Grammar Nazi is a common example.
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        But these people marching with people who are waving Nazi flags, shouting Nazi slogans and giving Nazi salutes. Even absent those symbols and specifics, they’re expressing Nazi sentiments.
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        I really don’t see where the hesitation to call them Nazis when that’s what they are proclaiming themselves to be. Is the fear of offending really that ingrained?
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        Liberals really need to grow a pair.

      4. StarWolf –
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        The “socialism” in Nazism was National Socialism, a doctrine that in some ways is almost the opposite of what we usually consider socialist.
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        The usual variety of socialism, of Marxist influence, is a call to arms for all workers and common people of all races and countries to unite against the rich, their common “class enemy”.
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        In contrast, the National Socialism of the Nazis was a call to arms for all people of pure “Aryan” blood to put their class differences aside and unite against folks of different races.
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        Common socialism = poor whites + poor blacks + poor folks of any race vs. rich folks.
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        Nazism (“National Socialism”) = poor whites + rich whites vs. non-white folks.
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        So, yeah, the far right dudes in the “alt-right” are very much striving in the manner of Nazi-Fascism, though Trump himself is more of an old-style Capitalist trying to present a National Socialism facade.

      5. Furthermore, real Nazis were German and were active in the ’30s and ’40s so clearly these people in America now really shouldn’t be referred to as Nazis.
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        I mean, if you’re going to be pedantic and stretch to make excuses for them …

  3. Yes, let’s all applaud those “mostly peaceful” counter-protesters in Boston who, when they were kept apart from the handful of people they didn’t like, politely and civilly attacked the police with rocks, bottles filled with urine, and other tools of peaceful dissent.

    ‘Cuz nothing — NOTHING — establishes your anti-fascist credentials like showing up for public events dressed in black, wearing masks, and armed and ready to beat the living crap out of people who say things you don’t like.

    1. Sorry Jay,
      You see, since they are protesting the evil, terrible Nazis and other wrong-think people, any tactic that they use, however evil in itself, is OBVIOUSLY right-think, and don’t tell them differently. PDs original post just goes to show that the alt-right has more of a sense of responsibility than the alt-left. Why cause trouble if you know that your opposition is going to over-react to what you do and say?

      There was a time that liberal protests were often accompanied by vehement reaction protests by right wingers and police. Now, it has swung the other way, with peaceful protests on the right being responded to by violence from the left. Irony is always underappreciated!

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