Attack on Alt-Right Leader Has Internet Asking: Is It O.K. to Punch a Nazi?

I've always said assaulting anyone over a political disagreement is wrong. One doesn't have to agree with the person being assaulted. But if the Left is going to condone punching out Nazis can the Right then punch out communists (or 'progressives')?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/...er=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

Attack on Alt-Right Leader Has Internet Asking: Is It O.K. to Punch a Nazi?
By LIAM STACKJAN. 21, 2017
Richard B. Spencer, a far-right activist, in Whitefish, Mont., in June. Credit Tim Goessman for The New York Times
Is it O.K. to punch a Nazi?

That is not a brainteaser or a hypothetical question posed by a magazine on Twitter. It is an actual question bouncing around the internet after an attack on a well-known far-right activist, Richard B. Spencer, in Washington after the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as president on Friday.

Mr. Spencer, who is credited with coining the term alt-right and describes himself as an “identitarian,” was punched in the head on Inauguration Day by a person clad in black as he was being interviewed by a journalist. At the time of the attack, Mr. Spencer was explaining the meaning of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon figure adopted as a mascot by the alt-right, a racist, far-right fringe movement that is anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-feminist. Video of the attack shows Mr. Spencer reeling to one side under the force of the blow and his attacker darting through a crowd after landing the punch.


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The Current Year @TheeCurrentYear
Video of [MENTION=2754]Rich[/MENTION]ardBSpencer getting punched by protester.
4:21 PM - 20 Jan 2017
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A bystander who chased the attacker later posted a video on YouTube of his encounter with the man. The assailant can be heard telling a friend that the man filming them is “mad at me because I hit Richard Spencer.” (The bystander who made the video does not appear to be a supporter of Mr. Spencer and disparagingly refers to the activist in the clip as “a neo-Nazi.”)


A pursuit video after the attack Video by HAarlem VEnison
Mr. Spencer described the incident in a Periscope video he posted on Twitter on Friday. Shortly after the attack, he said, he was spat on by another person. On Saturday, he said he had a black eye.

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Richard 🐸 Spencer ✔ [MENTION=2754]Rich[/MENTION]ardBSpencer
The assault on me. https://www.periscope.tv/w/a1E0uzQ3...LavozX0H4atEejgRJ0aCHZ0TQcyVFFUGoVtIxUMJFNMSK …
3:27 PM - 20 Jan 2017 · Washington, DC

Richard B. Spencer [MENTION=2754]Rich[/MENTION]ardBSpencer
The assault on me. — Washington, DC, United States
periscope.tv
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Mr. Spencer’s video was recorded from what he described as “a safe space.” He said he thought the attack happened, in part, because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“There was an actual anti-fascist rally going on, and I walked into it,” he said. Margarita Mikhaylova, a spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, said on Friday afternoon that Mr. Spencer had not filed a police report.

Video of the attack quickly inspired a flood of jokes and memes online, some of which set the punch to songs like “Born in the U.S.A.” Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama, was one of many who posted a comment.

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I don't care how many different songs you set Richard Spencer being punched to, I'll laugh at every one.
10:45 PM - 20 Jan 2017
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There was little substantive debate online about the ethics of punching Mr. Spencer. Twitter is not a place where minds are often changed, and the supporters and opponents of the sucker punch were unmoved by one another’s quips.

Opponents of the punch tended to say that violence had no place in political debate. Supporters tended to say the punch was funny, and more than a few compared Mr. Spencer’s attacker to famous Nazi punchers from pop culture, like Indiana Jones and Captain America.

 

Trump not only encouraged violence against liberals, he offered to pay the legal bills for attacking them.

Hypocrites one and all.

 

Says a liberal. Whos ideology is inherently hypocritical lol.

 

One TIME, in response to people invading HIS rallies. The Left has perpetuated violence all election year long and you haven't stopped.

 

Do you realize how CRAZY that is????

 

In Democracy there is enemies in every single Democracy nation in world outside Middle East. Specially in Western world there is normal thinkers how will punish a Nazi.

 

Best laugh yesterday, that's for sure. I liked all the clips of it being set to music.

 

The real question to ask is what is going to happen once conservatives realize that the left has declared war on us? I think many understand that there is a war, but few understand, as yet, that the silence and acceptance of this violence by the average left winger is because they condone the violence.

Once it dawns on conservatives that war has been declared on us, and not just by some far left fringe fruitcakes, what's going to be the response?

 

Who knows but the right has superior firepower and training..

 

You should have stuck with your initial position, there was no need to complicate it.

“The Left” didn’t do anything here (I don’t believe “The Left” or “The Right” exist). A single individual punched another individual, presumably because of the victim’s (perceived) political views. That was wrong regardless of who is involved (or the motive for that matter) but the crime doesn’t extend beyond anyone other than the individual attacker.

Similarly, people who condone, support or celebrate violence against people they oppose politically are individual responsible for their own views. That shouldn’t be extended to anyone who shares some of their political views (or you unconditionally associate with them).

There seem to be so many people in America at the moment expressing confusion why their country seems so divided at the moment yet when anything like this happens, they all identify a opposing generic “side” to blame it on.

 

Why you're going to go beat up the nearest liberal, which is what you've desperately wanted to do all along, and the vast majority of you have never needed any excuses to do anyway, or maybe you'll even shoot the poor (*)(*)(*)(*)er. I'm really surprised Spencer didn't. Wasn't he "packing"? He could have easily blown what was a small incident into a major tragedy and killed somebody in the bargain, wtf kind of conservative is he anyway?

Nobody's declaring "war" on anybody, this is a silly prankster attacking an even sillier neo-Nazi (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*). Oh, and note how perfectly staged it was to become a YouTube Meme. I wouldn't be surprised to find the whole thing was put up.

Tell me, why DO you conservatives always jump right on defending the inalienable "rights" of Nazis to advocate that we should wipe out about 95% of the people on Earth, man, woman and child, and then turn around and say we should "revoke a newpaper's 'license' " because they didn't gush over the nonexistent adoring crowds that Trump, and nobody else, saw at his Inauguration?

They should arrest this guy, and throw the book at him, physically. How should we deal with Nazis though? look up Bear Jew Scene from Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards" I've posted it on here too many times already

 

As long as we take this to heart, we need to prosecute Madonna, and anyone else, that has jokingly made threats against the POTUS or anyone else.
But no, people can't take sarcasm. I highly doubt Trump was serious when that was said in his usual kneejerk response to things. If someone took him on his word, unfortunately they could probably sue Trump - which only goes to show the sorry state of affairs this country has gotten itself into.

When you have to watch your every word, freedoms have really gone out the window.

 

Even Nazi's or Communists or Russians have the Constitutional right not to be punched in the face unless they were punched in the process of being prevented from attacking some innocent person. I am sorry but I am borrowing this very "liberal" view of the Constitution but right is right.

 

[video=youtube;WzYv5foyAS8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzYv5foyAS8[/video]

 

At no point should it ever be wrong to punch a Nazi.

 

This is the same sort of thinking that leads people to "justify" the punch in the first place.

 

And this is why the left is an enemy to a free society.

 

Assaulting someone for any other reason than self defense or defense of another's safety is wrong and should be condemned. As disgusting as Spencer is, he's exercising his free speech. Fight it with more free speech, not fists.

 

So much dissonance in one post. First you start off whining about how conservatives want to beat and kill liberals, then you say the attacker should be charged with a crime, then you advocate for killing Nazis? I think this kind of response really sums up the left-wing worldview.

 

At no point should it be okay, unless said Nazi is actually a physical threat to yourself or someone else.

 

Pretty typical. Masked left-wing "activist" hits someone from behind and then runs away like a coward.

 

Thanks to 50+ years of progressivism, we have a society where the far-right is assaulted on the streets while the far-left is running for President.

 

They exist, that's reason and threatening enough for my taste and as long as they live by that ideology then they're not worthy of my respect.

 

Nobody cares about earning your respect. Just don't get violent. That's the standard in a civilized society.

 

And I don't care about their respect either nor will I ever. Though I find it ironic you mention "civilized society" when the person who was hit held beliefs of a group that helped destroy half of Europe and murder millions.