i'd been wanting to create a catch-all thread for the growing threat of the alt-right/nazis and why denying them a platform is both important and highly successful. ERA is infinitely better at dealing with this garbage than 99% of other gaming communities (in my experience), but gaming side still has a slew of defenders cropping up every time a gamergater or other bigot rises through the cracks & creates something they like - more often than not though, the response is a weak but seemingly well-intended, boogie-esque centerist bit:
setting aside the obvious truths about stances like this defaulting to the oppressor: let's talk about why engaging - and thereby normalizing - nazis only serves to empower them.
Fascism & Nazis are on the rise - here's a thread i did earlier today: SPLC: The Alt-Right is Killing People
no shit, right? here in the states, we've a president that rose on bigoted statements & xenophobic promises, quickly defunded groups fighting white supremacist recruitment, praised both sides as "having good people" the day a nazi killed someone in charlottesville, and our highest law agencies now target "black identity extremists" while seemingly turning a blind eye to the actual growing threat of white extremist terror.
we've seen fawning pieces on richard spencer & co, and while this normalization continues, hate crime - particularly attacks on the muslim community - continues to rise.
maybe you knew a lot of this...but maybe you make academic distinctions between alt-right "trolls", and actual nazis, so here's a helpful venn diagram:
i'm glad we could clear that up. if you're curious about the links between gamergate, PUA/MRA type nonsense & this rise, here's a good starting piece: NBC News Traces the Link Between GamerGate, Trump Supporters, Alt-Right
But what about Free Speech?!
while the link between cries about free speech & support for hate speech are known, i think what matters here - apart from the fact that the 1st amendment refers to the state, and not the marketplace of ideas showing yours the door - is the importance of understanding how fascism & its historical goal of authoritarian genocide starts by attempts to legitimize itself.
gamergate, for example, didn't spontaneously manifest with the infamous slut-shaming incident accredited to its beginnings: the roots of misogynistic behavior were deep in gaming "culture", and a banner to fly under & mainstream attention for toxic views on women, diversity, multiculturalism, a disdain for political correctness (often known as civility), and such were the perfect combination for alt-right breeding & recruitment.
as numbers & public attention increase, so does the veil of legitimacy. the problem comes in with waffling "both sides" arguments, that treats hateful, poor-faith arguments for the dehumanization of marginalized communities as though they had any merit. the same way flat-earthers are not given a seat at the table of science discussions, holocaust denial with history, one of the single greatest things you can do to combat this garbage is to not engage it as though it were an honest and worthwhile view.
also, to quote another: the only way one can put absolute free speech (which in itself is arguable) over the well being of oppressed communities is if you see the whole of life as a debate hall.
another way to put it:
Denying them a platform at every turn is, historically, the most effect way of dealing with their growth
though a little pressed for time at this point, i'll happily expand this section later with examples of neo-nazi groups seeing their marches/recruitment drives stunted by disruption, to the point of their numbers dwindling. for our purposes though, this is already happening:
all this before Patreon just last year. in our capitalist society, it really helps to show advertisers that hate speech isn't worth it - Sleeping Giants, for instance, has had great success at taking ad revenue from Breitbart.
we need more of this - opposition to speeches on college campuses, pressure on any revenue sources they have and heat on sites allowing them a presense & platform from which to recruit. to quote a friend:
more to come - meantime, here's some more good material
No Platform for Fascism toolkit, a great tool to report such hateful recruitment videos on YouTube
This Is The Daily Stormer's Playbook
~ "Anti-Semite and Jew" by Jean Paul-Sartre circa 1944
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