America was founded as a nation of laws, laws which should treat anyone equally regardless of race, gender, creed, or beliefs. It is not for the government to decide what society sees at acceptable speech, but to society to use its innate power to curtail and form itself.

Society’s power rests in inclusion or exclusion in the benefits of society. In days past, if you were thrust out of society it meant fending on your own and being forced to eek out an existence on the fringes. Unfortunately today, it’s very easy to live on the fringes of society, and even easier to find others of your persuasion for support and confirmation of your fringe beliefs. People don’t die in the wilderness anymore, but is that a reason to change one of the major foundations of our American institution?

I don’t think it is. I’m firmly of a mind that once you grant the power to restrict speech it’s one of the greatest weapons of the enemies of freedom (Including Nazis). It’s far too easy to use censorship as a political tool, and very easy for society to fall into McCarthyism and paint broad groups as demons to be cast out. Yes, today it’s nazis and white nationalists, but yesterday it was Dr. Martin Luther King fighting for civil rights. No one has authority to judge what speech has merit, but we as a whole decide what is acceptable or not.

Now, if censorship isn’t the way to combat hateful rhetoric how do we tackle it? Do we arm up and go toe to toe? I’d argue again, no, because again we’re a nation of laws. Assault is assault whether you like what someone has to say or not. And furthermore, it feeds into the victimization narrative that these hate groups use to feed the fires of their followers and grow their hateful ideologies. These guys generally use the same recruiting tactics as ISIS and similar groups, and every action people take that they can use to enforce their narrative should be avoided at all costs. Every one of their group that gets punched, arrested, or otherwise becomes a martyr to the cause, a person to be emulated. The guy that gets punched in the face today, wont suddenly have an epiphany that he’s wrong, he’ll just show up next time with a set of brass knuckles, a gun, or maybe a Dodge Charger… Violence Begets Violence. Always.

The only course of action I can see that doesn’t make things worse is to show these hateful people (and the world) that 1) They are so grossly outnumbered and outmatched that any thoughts for their hateful revolution or otherwise, would be a futile effort. and 2) That society has heard, and rejects their views.

One of the dangerous things I am seeing right now is the media taking up these demonstrations and blowing out the numbers to make it seem like they were way bigger than they are. By all accounts there was 200-300 of these guys in Charlottesville, and thousands of counter protesters, these guys were probably outnumbered 20 to 1 which is awesome. This was a nationwide, highly publicized callout from maybe different hate groups, and people answered the call, but were still outnumbered 20-1. They should be made to feel small, feeble, and petty. But they shouldn’t be attacked with violence, or have their rights restricted. They claim there’s a war on the white race, don’t feed the narrative.