By Mahdi Barakat
Thursday, August 24, 2017
In the days following the violence in Charlottesville,
people from across the political spectrum united to condemn the abomination
that is white supremacy. White nationalism is a disgusting ideology, and
there’s no reason to doubt this truth. Yet its public presence has prompted the
question: Do people have the right to punch white supremacists, even if they
have not initiated violence?
A not insignificant portion of the population seems to
think so. Antifa and their ilk have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to
use preemptive physical aggression as a tactic of protest. This violence is
justified via the “It’s okay to punch Nazis” meme that has won the endorsement
of a significant number of people on the Left. If you haven’t noticed the
prominence of this sentiment, then you just haven’t bothered to look:
Note: These publications aren’t endorsing the behavior.
They just illustrate the popularity of the Nazi-punching discussion.
I believe that punching individuals for their beliefs is
wrong, no matter how evil those beliefs are. White supremacists are bad people,
but you can’t just go around attacking them. I devised a thought-experiment to
elucidate just how insane this mindset really is. Warning: The following
content is based on a counterfactual, and I categorically reject the conclusions
drawn.
Who Else Can We
Punch? Let’s See
Let’s, for the sake of argument, agree that it is alright
to punch Nazis wherever we see them, even if the Nazi being punched hasn’t been
known to be violent. If we assume that punching Nazis is okay, then who else
deserves a hearty knuckle sandwich?
Well, one could make a cogent argument for punching any
of the participants in the infamous “We want dead cops” rally that occurred in
New York City in 2014. Considering the 2015 anti-cop rampage in Dallas and the
167 percent increase in ambush-style killings of police officers in 2016, I’d
say that cop-killing advocacy is definitely nefarious. If it’s okay to punch
Nazis, then it would be alright to punch those who openly condone cold-blooded
murder.
What about fans of the Islamic State? This is a softball:
of course it’s okay to punch ISIS sympathizers. ISIS openly takes sex slaves,
crucifies Christians, and throws gay people off buildings. But, according to a
poll by the Doha Institute, around 13 percent of Syrian refugees support ISIS.
Pew reports that 9 percent of Pakistanis have favorable views of ISIS. Is there
a possibility that punching a random Syrian refugee (excluding children—for
now) at customs results in an approximately 1 in 7 chance of doing good by
pro-Nazi-punching ethics?
What about those who support sharia law, which typically
manifests in legal systems that punish homosexuals, apostates, and adulterers
with imprisonment and death? Well this
handy 2013 report from the highly reputable Pew Research Center claims that 84
percent, 74 percent, 91 percent, and 99 percent of people in Pakistan, Egypt,
Iraq, and Afghanistan, respectively, favor making sharia the law of the land.
Sounds like open season for some good punching.
However, general support for sharia law doesn’t
necessarily imply that you support its most inhumane forms. Fortunately for
those who are just aching to punch some brown people, the aforementioned 2013
Pew polls indicate that more than 81 percent of Egyptian Muslims support stoning
adulterers.
Similarly, 88 percent of Egyptians Muslims believe in
killing those who leave the religion. These numbers are similarly high in
Jordan, Pakistan, and a host of other Muslim countries. So next time you go to
your local Middle Eastern market for some tahini paste, know there’s a decent
probability that a quick left jab-right hook to the friendly Arab guy behind
the counter might in fact be a moral good.
So, Let’s Snap
Back to Civilization
If the idea of punching random Egyptians for having
backwards views makes you squeamish, then I have good news for you: your moral
compass is not completely dysfunctional. The problem is twofold. First,
vigilantism is a notoriously dangerous practice. If a beating is meant to
punish or deter racists and Islamists, then we’re giving the authority of
judge, jury, and executioner to whoever sees themselves fit to exact justice on
whomever they find criminal.
Second, hate speech is still free speech, and Antifa
militants are as justified in resorting to violence at a rally as a civilian
anti-Islamist group would be in aggressing upon a local mosque with a known
hate-preacher.
So, you either both accept that punching Nazis is
justified and accept the absurd conclusions
outlined above, or you call it all out for what it is: pure thuggery
masquerading as justice and virtue. Attacking a non-violent person, even if
that person holds detestable views, is among the most fundamentally
anti-liberal and anti-American things that one can do.
It goes both ways, of course. You don’t punch an
Islamist, or a communist, or a black supremacist just because he is publically
espousing beliefs that you find abhorrent. This isn’t difficult stuff, and the
fact that we have to spell out the obvious (that free speech is protected in
America) reflects the sad decline in our country’s liberal values.
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