While I don't believe in wasting empathy on fascists, when I see people posting "fascists aren't people" stuff I feel sick to my stomach because this kind of dehumanization of people we hate (even if they hate us) is fascist thinking. Fascists are people, terrible people who wish or don't care if they do the rest of us harm, but still human beings. This doesn't mean we have to indulge them, it just means that when we dehumanize other people we are in the process of becoming fascists ourselves (no matter how loudly we yell "freedom"). Freedom comes with responsibilities if you're not a fascist and one of those responsibilities is to recognize that we're all human, even the people we don't like or who may want to kill us.
@fifilamoura Yep, but also even on a simpler level. I keep hearing from leftists asking "why do we allow these nazis to keep spreading their hate?" without ever realizing that enabling the government to shut down subversive speech is *exactly what they want*.
@CosmicTrigger 🤷♂️We have incitement laws too, but they're narrowly tailored because we expect the listener to exercise a modicum of independent thought. And also, that's a far cry from trying to criminalize hate speech, which is closer to what I was talking about above.
@LouisIngenthron I'm a prison and police abolitionist, but hate speech leads to more hate.
It should be criminalized.
Unfortunately, capitalism leads to the material conditions that allow fascism to thrive and grow.
Economic equality leads to equality in all areas of life.
@CosmicTrigger The problem with that is that "hate speech" is subjective. Criminalize it one day and watch the fascists use it to arrest drag queens the next day. That's a door we don't want to open.
That's why hate speech laws are impossible under capitalism.
Antifascists saying "ACAB!" are prone to get nailed for it.
I know this much: history has proven there is only one way to rid the world of Nazis.
The sooner we wake up to that reality, the better
@CosmicTrigger It has literally nothing to do with capitalism. Hate speech laws are fallible in any government run by humans.
@LouisIngenthron
*laughs in volksverhetzung*