CBS says it's OK to "punch a Nazi"

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(04-17-2019, 09:05 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Were they well known before reporters started using their tweets for the basis of articles? Because I do try to avoid the extremes of both sides on general principle, but I haven't heard of these people. I also think social media is a cess pit and avoid it other than browsing Twitter (but not using it) for sports news.

Granted, I also lean towards the "shun and do not engage or mention until they fade away" method of dealing with white supremacists and the like. The thing they want the most is attention and validation. The current system of reporting (and social media as a whole) gives them both. The attention just fuels them and makes their attempts grow.

It's like that crazy girl just recently who was being hunted for by the police because she was obsessed with the Columbine shooter and got a gun and made threats (she was on the run and later shot herself it seems). By continuing to give so much coverage to shitheads of society like the Columbine shooter, sure you're condeming them, but you're also putting them up on a pedestal. You're making them special and remembered, rather than their memory having faded away like it needs to be. That's honestly my belief on why there's the school shootings these days. Angry unknown loser turns into the country's most talked about person for weeks/months, and immortalized in memory. A different angry unknown loser sees that and thinks that isn't so bad compared to their sad little life.

It's not good to reward acts of being a horrible human being, and the attention is indeed a reward. They're basically providing them with a free bullhorn to spread their horribleness and thinking that it's "helping".




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As for people worried that Conservatives will be lumped with Nazi, it's already happening. Racist, Bigot, and Nazi have basically just come to mean anyone right of Bill Clinton these days. Shit, even on P&R if I don't agree with the left and toe the company line, I get called a Trump supporter/voter, and people have decided to expand the term white supremacist to seemingly all Trump supporter/voters (because apparently half the voters and a third of the Hispanic vote are white supremacists).

I refuse to even wear a full-red Cincinnati Reds hat, because it's not worth the potential hassle of some jackass thinking they're doing a "good deed" seeing someone wearing a red hat from behind. (I am sure someone will come in here in a bit and post a "Won't someone think of the white people?" meme or something in response to play down the issue.)

I will say many of my liberal friends in this forum are much more knowledgeable of these alt-right personalities than I. Perhaps it's a case of "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". Wasn't too long ago some dude that was a member of an alt-right rag got in trouble and I confessed to not knowing who the hell he was. I was called everything including a liar.

I can plainly declare I have 0  idea who the well known twitter folks are that Pat quoted. I think it's a defense mechanism. "Let's be well versed in BS these folks say in case our folks say some BS; then we can move the spotlight."