Summary
A group of masked men with Nazi flags protested outside a performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Howell, Michigan, shouting antisemitic slurs.
Audience members were reportedly frightened and needed escorts to their cars. The Fowlerville Community Theatre, which staged the play, described the protesters’ presence as a disturbing reminder of the fear faced by Holocaust victims.
The Anti-Defamation League condemned the display. The incident follows other recent displays of racism in the area.
Huge for what? Our feelings? Certainly not huge for progress since we’ve taken several steps backwards
Huge for not being proponents of political violence. Be it for the sake of history, our legitimacy as a nation, the sake of teaching our children healthy values and civics, and sure, for our feelings, take your pick. Sometimes being a good person and using alternatives to violence is much harder than defaulting to our baser instincts.
The whole idea of modern politics is for it to be how we resolve conflicts and make progress without violence. That’s the whole point. Politics is the antithesis of violence.
Politics is not the antithesis of violence. It’s literally ceding the right to violence only to the state because it’s less personally risky. When the state maintains a modicum of restraint is generally a tolerable arraignment. When the state becomes fascist is time to reclaim the right to violence away from the state.
Our legitimacy as a nation is being further tarnished by these fucks. And I’m perfectly OK with kids learning that people calling for violence against a group of people should be shown violence.
And again, we walked the high road for decades and it led us here. If all Nazis get are a slap on the wrist, they become emboldened. If they got punched in the head, a significant portion would roll over. There’s plenty of violent people in that crowd but plenty more just along for the ride.