Comments

1
I learned something new today: Nazis sag their pants.
2
Something is really screwed up in Seattle, and we better get a handle on it.
3
You know, normally I'm all about peaceful protest, about deescalating, about non-confrontation. Violence isn't the answer, etc.

But when I see a Nazi getting punched, it just gladdens my heart.
4
Punching Nazis: an American tradition since 1941.
5
Sorry, not sorry.
6
Having a hard time finding the joyous, personally. Punch Nazis, okay, but it's kinda gross to be smug about it?

I guess I'd like to say after you punch Nazis you should ask if they need help. But I have to say I wouldn't trust a Nazi to get close enough to give him a hand.
8
Punching a Nazi before the Nazi done any punching kind of makes you a Nazi: you are responding with violence to non-violent conduct that offends you.

If punching is your thing, but you also still want to pose as a good guy, then you have to wait for the Nazi to get violent first.
9
Wearing a fucking Nazi armband in public?? I'm stunned at the idiocy of that action alone. Talk about loser ideologies.

I would humbly suggest that a good crowd tactic would be to simply point and laugh at the "Nazi"-clown.
10
@7: Sorry you're disgusted / not sorry.
11
@8 - Calling people a pejorative name ("ape"), and then throwing objects at people is not violent?
If that's what you are asserting, that would be a new definition, and I challenge you to support it.
12
@7 Whatever, Nerd

@8 People don't hate the Nazis because they were violent. There were many governments who killed far more than the Nazis did during the same period. People hate Nazis because they're bigots that hate and commit violence based on race, religion, nation of origin, etc... That's a false equivalency.

Self-defense can be proactive.
13
That Nazi jerk-off needed a punch to the face. Yes, I believe it's wrong to use violence against people with different political views. I also don't consider wearing the symbol of a group that engineering the genocide of 11 million people a "political view." If any group lost their right to be treated with respect in civil society, it's the god damn motherfucking Nazis.
14
@11, 12, 13:

Yes, throwing a banana at someone is violent. But violence used in self-defense must be proportionate to the initial threat. Disproportionate defensive violence is still an unjustified act. A banana toss, while violent, does not justify a knockout haymaker into a concrete wall.

As for the content of Nazi beliefs serving as justification for violence against Nazis, that is literally the argument that Nazis themselves use against Jews. The puncher in the video was not proactively saving 11 million lives, he was violently silencing a voice (possibly even a mentally ill voice) that he personally found distasteful. Don't fight a Nazi by becoming a Nazi.
15
Are Nazis the only group worthy of being preemptively punched? How about communists, who have caused more death/suffering than Nazis? How about punching Islamists?

And where does one draw the line with this violence? Suppose one decided it was easier to just shoot this guy in the head? Also justified? And would it make a difference if he was a minor and/or mentally ill, which doesn't seem at all unlikely?
16
@8 I had not considered that it was possible to lose a discussion about an actual Nazi on Godwin's Law grounds, but you did it.

Con-fucking-rat-u-lations!

17
@12" "There were many governments who killed far more than the Nazis did during the same period"? I guess the USSR is "many", or you need to read up.
18
if you're not siding with people who are punching Nazis, then you're siding with Nazis, you Nazi.
19
@15: no, just Nazis. the line is drawn at Nazis. wait: and the Klan. you can punch the Klan.
20
Generally speaking, when someone gets put to sleep like that, I think we ought to give help. Message sent, you know?

That's a strong punch. Lotta hand speed on that kid.
21
@16: I bask in your praise. And like you, I had not considered it possible for an actual Nazi to be the victim of political violence, but the puncher in the video has proven me wrong.
23
Well, at least they didn't use Monty Python's Self Defense Against Fresh Fruit technique.
24
Take the skin heads bowling!
25
Openly advocating genocide is not a political view worth protecting. Punch these fuckers. Break their bones. They are a real and present threat to everyone. Even white people are put in danger by these assholes because once the tide rolls back, the retribution is hell. Look at what people did to suspected collaborators in eastern Europe after the war. If you did nothing, you are just as bad as them.
26
@17: Indeed: I'd expect to see a Stalinist roaming the streets in a Komsomol uniform throwing beets at members of the Proletariat and telling they need to be sent to an Alaskan gulag, I'd expect him to get a punch in the nose, too. Despite the attempt at equivalence @12, this literally NEVER HAPPENS.
27
@3: Violence is never the answer. Your heart needs adjusting.
28
So much for the "tolerant" left.
29
@27: Violence is never the answer, except to the question, "How do you handle Nazis?"

To quote Killer Mike: "I'm pro violence against enemies of this Republic. Last I checked Nazis were still on My Granddad's 'fuck up on site' list."
30
@27, I know. I'm a bad person.
31
We need to differentiate between actual nazis and disturbed individuals in nazi costumes.
32
What @31 said. It's possible, maybe even likely, the guy was mentally ill, in which case everyone involved should feel bad about themselves.

In the hand, if he's just a regular, non-ill Nazi douche? Fuck him, then.
33
@21 Earlier, your score was semi-respectable because of the high degree of difficulty, but now you're just embarrassing us all.

Just muster what dignity you can, take the 'L' and leave the pool.

If it makes you feel better, have the Perpen Fuhrer get that car's license pla…
35
@30: No, you're human.
36
I'm not sure a punch is the right solution to this Nazi's provocation. How about feeding him into a meat grinder feet first?
38
@30 @31 if you promote the killing/genocide of a particular race or several other races, you ARE mentally ill period.
39
I enjoyed the body-language transition of the Nazi-clad guy when he realized someone was about to fight back: classic bully behavior, trying to back-pedal once he lost the upper hand . . . and then got what he very much had coming.
40
Okay, Jew here- Nazis don't have "opinions I disagree with" - they want me exterminated. And their views aren't political- they're anti-semitic, racist, hateful, ethnocentric bullshit. I'm assuming the man he called an ape and threw a banana at was black. Do you think he just happened to have a banana in his Hitler lunch box? Or is it possible that he had it so that he could do exactly what he did? That a banana can't cause much physical harm when thrown isn't the point. The message he was sending shows the depth of the hate and the violence. So yeah, he deserved a punch in the face. And punching a Nazi makes you a Nazi? It is NOT LITERALLY using the same thought process that Nazis used against Jews. They didn't say we wanted to kill them all - we were just supposedly taking all of the money and ruining the German economy. Hitler also claimed that Jews were inferior and compared us to disease spreading vermin. That false equivalence of punching a Nazi makes you a Nazi is mind boggling. Your psychobabble is a bunch of crap. How are people so willing to offer this guy a pass? "Maybe he's mentally ill." That's some white privilege benefit of the doubt right there. Do you say that when a Muslim does anything? He's a radical terrorist! Or a black man? He's a thug! He's mentally ill- That's the go to for white criminals. And if anyone thinks arguing this point with me is going to make me *see the light,* this is one topic I'm not budging on.
41
@40 DAMN STRAIGHT

This thread should be considered over. Your comment says everything that needs to be said.
42
I'm curious as to the thought process one would need to go through in order to think that putting on a swastika armband and picking fights downtown would end well. I'm not saying this guy was mentally ill and should get a pass, but asking what did he think the end game was? Showing that he could walk around as a Nazi with impunity? Finding other like minded Nazis to hang out with? Or did he expect to get punched in the face at some point? If the latter, than what was the point? To show that the "Left" was prone to violence against a poor Nazi exercising their first amendment rights?
Regardless, no sympathy here. That dude is lucky he only got knocked out and not hospitalized.
44
@15 Hey get your facts straight, Nazi-apologist. Hitler and Mussolini and Franco sent communists to death camps along with Jews, Roma, Orthodox Christians. Partisans and members of the French resistance were communists. Communists fought against Nazis - and they were among the best fighters - we wouldn't have won the second WW without communists. And that's exactly to deal with Nazis. You punch them in the face.
45
>Hitler and Mussolini and Franco sent communists to death camps

Literally nothing wrong with this.
46
Nazis declared total war on the United States in 1941. I have zero issue with anyone finally ending WWII for them.
47
@44: Sorry, communism was the leading ideological cause of death in the 20th century. Google it. You may want to also factor in the misery, poverty, and wasted lives caused by this cancer. Obviously this doesn't mean fascism is any better or worse, and I fully recognize that body counts aren't everything. They are both awful.

Of course you'll respond that communism as it's existed isn't *really* communism and that you and your comrades could do much better (yeah, right). You may want to also yourself if this disturbed young man with *really* a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party as it existed 1920 to 45.
48
While this dickless Nazi is an asshole, violence, unless it's in self defense, is NEVER the answer. And we all know that if an asshole with a hammer and sickle armband did the same shit and got punched, it would be considered a completely different story.
@44 And communists declared war on the US in Korea and have massacred countless millions of innocent people. So is it okay to punch a commie? I saw a guy walking around U district a few months ago with a Red Guard armband...if a Tibetan were to pound that little shit to a pulp, would that be okay?
50
@22
It's a public bus. As long as said Nazi isn't doing anything to anyone, who cares? Honestly, I am not white, but as long as someone in a Nazi uniform or whatever wasn't hurting anyone, I wouldn't care. Every time I go to Seattle I see assholes in Che t-shirts. If I can tolerate them, I can tolerate an attention seeking refugee from /pol/, as long as they both mind their own business.
51
@40 This straight, white, male atheist totally agrees.
52
Calling people names is, to my knowledge, legally considered 'fighting words", and is a clear and direct provocation to others. Provocation like that isn't protected by the 1st Amendment. You don't have 'free speech' to be shitty to people like that.

You go around in public places, trying to provoke people with names intended to denigrate & incite, throwing things at them, wearing the clothing of a historical group known for literal genocide ... then maaaybe receiving some retaliation is in order. Maybe you got what you were actually asking for.

"violence used in self-defense must be proportionate to the initial threat."
Is that so? When did that rule come into being? Did you just make it up because it sounds polite? Are you saying that we must stand around passively until someone physically attacks us before we can fight back? Is that how it worked with the school bully who perpetrated low-level harassment for months until you finally sock him in the lunchroom, putting an end to his shit? Maybe in civil society one refrains from physical violence, but espousing death to a entire class of people is hardly "civil".
The best defense is a good offense seems more applicable to dealing with such bullies who openly wish harm on other people.

If this idiot, or any other "Nazis", want to have a civil conversation --with no name calling, no marching around with assault rifles, no showing up wearing body armor & helmets & sticks-- we can do that. Let's talk.

You show up looking for --and dressed for-- a fight, intimidating people with AR-15s & combatty maneuvers, inciting people by calling them "ape" & throwing bananas, or chanting "Fuck You Fag-gots" with war drum accompaniment... You've pretty much lost any "free speech" position you might want, and you are actively provoking an incident. If people rise up against that provocation and smack you down, we'll, you got what you were looking for.

Don't want violence? Don't provoke violence.

Seems simple.
53
There are some ultra fucked up peope walking around Seattle these days. Last week I saw this garbage head woman screaming "faggot" at a tween girl on the Burke-Gilman trail near Gasworks. Honestly, if my brain hadn't freeze from disbelief, I might have considered doing some violence!
54
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/20…

@22: There's this story from two years ago.
55
TIL @35 / raindrop is a Nazi sympathizer.
56
To all the folks who try to draw similarities between this Nazi douche and communists, here's the thing: While communists have certainly committed atrocities around the world, there is no real history of communistic violence in the US, whereas there is a significant history of organizational racial violence in the US. Communists are (luckily) a pretty impotent group in the US and I don't think anyone but the most dilusional FOX watcher is actually worried about widespread communistic violence. However, widespread racial violence is an actual problem. Here. Right now. Not as bad as in 1940's Germany, of course. But it exists. On a day to day basis. And it's nearly sanctioned by our fucking president.

So you'll have to excuse the people who view proud white supremacists as a greater threat than the rather non-threatening commies.
58
56&57: The reason I brought up communism (and Islamism) was to illustrate that there are many terrible ideologies that cause immeasurable human misery. I personally don't believe that violating the social contract and premtively punching people is ever ethically justified and simply not a good idea for a multitude of reasons. Don't give a fuck if that makes me a "Nazi sympathizer" to some confused individuals. People die from being punched all the time. People also punch back.

Sarah Haider (ex-Muslim activist) put it extremely well in this Facebook status:

"I am not sure what those who think "it's okay to punch Nazis" think is going to happen once violence is widely considered an acceptable form of political expression.

I have seen *multiple* far-Left commentators justify violence, or even call for additional physical aggression.

The foolishness is astonishing.

We are so lucky to live in a country where violence is widely considered (by all sides) to be an unacceptable answer to political disagreement. This is such a precious trait....so difficult to cultivate yet so simple to destroy. Our society is prosperous, free, and intellectually-vibrant because our expectation of physical safety is reasonable even when we espouse unpopular ideas.

Do the tough-guy progressives not realize there are still *many* people who are truly intolerant of minorities (both ethnic and religious)? What if bible-belters began to physically-assault atheists and the treatment was justified by broader society? This is the kind of reasoning that justifies the harassment and murder of abortion doctors, of shooting those who offend religious "feelings", of setting fire to headquarters of groups like ACLU or SPLC.

In a United States where violence becomes acceptable and widespread - how do you think the political Left will fare? Do you think conservatives are physically unable to dominate you? Do you not know that they are much more likely to own firearms and have the training to use them? Do you not know they are disproportionately male, while the Left is disproportionately female? Do you not know that both the military and the police force is much more likely to lean conservative? How do you think all this will affect the outcome of physical match?

I know an appeal to principle (violence is never acceptable expression) just isn't cutting it for the "hard-core" Lefties among us. But perhaps an appeal to self-preservation and common-sense will work.

The bottom line is this: if brawns are now in play, the rules of the game are stacked against progressives (and racial/intellectual/sexual minorities, women, and physically disabled). This has played out in history numerous times, look no further than the Middle East to see what happens to freethinkers when physical aggression runs rampant. The most brutal and intolerant are empowered - the gentle and considerate further weakened. It is in the interest of minorities of all stripes to prevent this card from being played (and also of society as a whole, but what is best for everyone doesn't seem to appeal very much to idealogues on any extreme)."
59
Here's the problem with punching Nazis.

Infowars, Breitbart, Fox News and the rest.

Punching a Nazi is like handing Alex Jones a $50 bill while simultaneously spray painting a Target on your back.

This is 2017 people, and the internet appears to be forever, or as close to forever as any of us is ever going to see.
The Nazi should have thought about this before you put on that stupid armband, and the guy that punched him should have thought about it too.
61
I'm no SPD fan, but damn, I sure enjoyed their little "story in 3 tweets."
63
@60. Hey! It's the Wikipedia biologist! Did your thesis consist of linking your professors to Wikipedia's page on frogs?

No one cares what YOU have to say either. If someone wants to equate communism with the nazi party and discuss who should or shouldn't get punched then they absolutely have that right.

You don't get to control what other people say or think, nazi.
64
Callan Berry, please cover this and let us know if any SPD business cards were given out.
67
This guy surely tucked his tail between his legs and scuttled home. If and when he returns with a gun, or a Camaro, and mows down unsuspecting in retaliation for the humiliation he will undoubtedly desrvingly endure, let's make sure we all keep that eye for an eye mentality. Stupid city.
68
Mirror copy of video here: https://youtu.be/0u3yQC4i4hA
69
Yeah sure, maybe Mr Nazi is crazy.
Yeah sure, maybe in our exalted idealistic self-image we adhere to living the principles of non-violence that Dr King taught us.
But I'm glad I live in a community that has a nervous system capable of a twitch. White boy got dem hands!
70
Oh, @27 & @48 & @58 & @62, calm your Nazi-loving tits before you have a stroke.

Nobody is going door to door, punching elderly racists and commies for their political beliefs. The only people who get punched are the ones standing out in a public square, being loud and aggressive and actively trying to terrorize other people with implicit or explicit threats of violence. Their whole deal is power and dominance, and the only thing they understand is greater power and greater dominance.

If you stay out of pissing contests, no anti-fascist is going hunt you down and piss on you for ideological reasons. If you intentionally pick violent fights in public, you get punched. It's that simple.
71
@56

The '70s were a long time ago, but the stuff that happened in them really did happen.

The BLA, the SLA, the FALN, and of course the Weathermen were all explicitly Marxist, as were thousands of smaller or less prolific radical groups. Between them they engaged in a wave of political violence that hasn't been matched since in this country by any domestic group, but has been largely forgotten. In one stretch of 18 months in 1971-72 2,500 bombs went off on US soil, almost all of them planted by homegrown Marxists of one flavor or another. When members of these groups fled to Cuba, it wasn't just because it happens to be nearby and have nice beaches.

None of which tells us a damned thing about what to do about our white supremacist problem, of course. If history is any guide, more people are going to die before we find a solution, and punching people doesn't seem likely to prevent it.
72
I am sure I would have applauded if I'd seen the idiot Nazi get knocked out, but we have to stop trying to justify this as a good thing. Punching folks we disagree with is not good for us as a city or a country. And claiming it's okay because he's a Nazi and Nazis have done heinous things is even worse. It makes us like them, justifying violence against an individual because of the group he belongs to.

If your argument can just as easily be used by a Nazi to justify harassing someone wearing a kippa or a headscarf, you know that you don't have a good argument.

As for whether this guy personally deserved it, let's be clear about what actually happened. The guy was wearing an arm band on the D line and "antifa" mobilized on Twitter to intercept him. They confronted him as a crowd. The Nazi did not attack first. He said something insulting about "welfare", but he did not throw a banana. There's a video on the NY Post and you can see it for yourself.

Yes, seeing a Nazi get flattened gladdens the heart, but fighting hate with hate is counter to our ideals and actually makes things worse. It felt good for a moment, but now the Nazis get a narrative that paints them as the innocent victims and us as no better than them.
73
Excellent technique. Crazy fast hand speed and popped him in the temple. Lights out.
74
Guy is this into Nazi imagery, yet wears his armband on the wrong arm?
75
That punch was impressive as hell!

That was 100 times better than the $100 pay-per-view Mayweather-McGregor debacle.

What hand-speed as another person commented!
76
@74

Yes it’s true that the WWII Nazi armband should be worn on the left arm, you’re actually expecting that this sleazeball can tell left from right? That second hand outfit would hardly have been worn by SS Obergruppenführer.

Perhaps as he was dressing he confused his image in the mirror.

BTW Rufus Sewell who played der Führer by the end of the second season of “The Man in the High Castle” says that a fanboy club of neo-Nazis has grown in the UK. He was embarrassed when he was in a restaurant with his three year old daughter and this guy saw Sewell through the window and gave him a Sieg Heil salute. Sewell said that the Elect-Trump campaign was a major sponsor of the TV series which surprised absolutely no one.

Sewell said that the most frightening part of neo-Nazis is that they are NOT monsters but human beings...and THAT is terrifying.

How is that the rest of the world sees Trump for what he is, a bigoted white supremacist yet our own country is afraid to call him out--except for one woman ESPN analyst and Trump wants her fired!

Yee gods w are SUCH cowards!
77
@28 wrote: "So much for the 'tolerant' left."

Yep. You got us. When it comes to actual Nazis, people calling for the extermination, subjugation, and enslavement of others, we are completely and utterly INTOLERANT.

Best keep that in mind.
78
@76: Frankly, it seems more likely this is staged. It is just a little too perfect a drama for liberals right now. It is literally everything they want to see, and everything that confirms the worldview they want to be true.

No one reported it to the cops, and the guy immediately got up when cops eventually showed up, took the armband off, refused to give a name, file charges, or seek treatment, and then he left. Seems odd considering the severity of the crime.

The armband being on the incorrect arm does ensure you can see it clearly in all the best shots.
79
@71 Those groups killed very very few people. The only really committed property destruction on a grand scale.

@72 There's a big difference between hating someone based on misconceptions of the group they were born into vs hating someone based on the actual inherent beliefs of a group which they voluntarily align with. BIG difference.
80
@78, Of course, on cue, as soon as something doesn't fit your worldview it's a conspiracy or "false flag". No. It's much more likely and believable that this idiot is in fact a racist piece of shit (of which we sadly have many) who underestimated the response of the general public of his nazi assholery.
81
@80: My worldview includes the existence of racists and dumb edgelords, so I have no idea what you are talking about.

It could be a lot of things, personally it seems to me in order of likelihood it would be an internet prank/publicity stunt, the world's dumbest edgelord, and then an actual Nazi parading around in Seattle (alone and unarmed) and starting arguments with people. None of these things are conspiracies or "false flags" (a conspiracy by whom, even? What would it achieve?).

I don't need or want it to be anything, this just seems the most reasonable explanation based on what I have seen. So why do you need it to be true so badly?
83
@79

That's the spin from many of the remaining members of those groups, but they did kill people, probably more people than you realize, and those people remain dead.

The BLA very deliberately assassinated people. The weatherman "apartment bomb" that went off prematurely was intended for a dance (at a military base, thus a legitimate wartime Target in the eyes of the planners).

Later in the '70s tactics shifted for most groups, but some were still targeting people (notably policemen) and all of them were using bombs to advance their political cause, for heaven's sake. Peaceful activists (and there were still peaceful activists throughout the period) were marching and writing letters and sitting in, not stockpiling guns and planting bombs in the bathrooms of public buildings.
84
@78 & 81

Teddy, you seem more than a little bit confused today. First you said this:

"Frankly, it seems more likely this is staged. It is just a little too perfect a drama for liberals right now. It is literally everything they want to see, and everything that confirms the worldview they want to be true."

If you think this was staged, that means it was a conspiracy ( two or more people acting together in secret) and a false flag ( a conspiracy designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them).

Then you contradict yourself by saying this:

"It could be a lot of things, personally it seems to me in order of likelihood it would be an internet prank/publicity stunt, the world's dumbest edgelord, and then an actual Nazi parading around in Seattle (alone and unarmed) and starting arguments with people. None of these things are conspiracies or "false flags" (a conspiracy by whom, even? What would it achieve?).
What you are describing would be the textbook definition of a conspiracy and a false flag.

Teddy, it's more than obvious what you're trying to do here. You're spouting the same ridiculous right-wing conspiracy theories about false flags that you can see on any comment thread on any right wing website that is covering this story.
All you're trying to do is soften it up a bit so you can continue to pretend that you're just a concern Troll and not a Nazi.

It's not working Teddy.
Not only can we see your Nazi armband, but we can also see that you have it displayed on the correct arm.
85
@84: "You are suggesting that there is a chance that a viral video is staged? NAZI!!!11!!!!111!!!!!111"

I am sorry that you are so deeply confused, but I really can not help you.
86
@85
Teddy, please, this sort of thing is beneath even you.
You're going to try to dismiss this as a viral video?
The only people who think this was anything but real are crazy right-wingers like Alex Jones,
And you, apparently.

I judge you by The Company You Keep Teddy, and by your words.
My judgment is, you are a Nazi and a conspiracy theorist.
87
@85

One more thing Teddy.
I said you were confused, and you obviously are confused, because at first you said you thought the video was staged but then you said that it was not a conspiracy or a false flag.
If the video was staged then it is by definition a false flag conspiracy.

So we can all see what you are confused about. What exactly am I supposed to be confused about here Teddy?
88
@87: Like I said, I can't help you, and I am sorry for that.
89
I don't need your help Teddy.
Why would I want the help of a Nazi apologist like you?

You're the one that needs help Teddy, but you've got to want it first.
90
@78 You really think that punch was fake? Or that some "liberal" let themselves get clocked like that for the cause? Conspiracy bullshit is for the weak and fearful. White nonsense.
91
@72:
It makes us like them, justifying violence against an individual because of the group he belongs to.

If your argument can just as easily be used by a Nazi to justify harassing someone wearing a kippa or a headscarf, you know that you don't have a good argument.

Wrong. Nazis aren't just any group. They actively advocate for and work toward the elimination of other groups based on who those people are, not just "what group they belong to". As a queer person, my opposition to Nazis is rooted not in "what group they belong to", but in the fact that THEY WANT ME DEAD. When exactly did defending yourself become morally indistinguishable from unprovoked aggression?

Fuck your false equivalence. I can't believe we have to keep explaining this shit.
92
Has anyone figured out who this a-hole is yet? someone must recognize him from the pix.
93
A lot of people here aruging proactive self defence. Isn't that like the way we self defenced the fuck out of Iraq?
94
Sorry, late to the party. But: @14 -- "The violence should be proportionate to the initial threat"

In the case of Nazi's, the "initial Threat" was the *actual* genocide that killed 6 million, not to mention the war for supremacy that killed millions more.
95
Vigilantism is cool now? Great! Good to know. Look out crime, here I come!

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.