Holy gold what a shitmine of TechTakes this thread is.

It's justified that figures like count dankula pitch rightward when faced with persecution and left-leaning public opinion turns on them. This is the only way they can sustain and get support. Attempting to stay true to your beliefs is self destructive in these cases. Therefore on the other side of the coin, the people on the left doing it are sabotaging their "side" to satisfy personal vendettas, and people caught doing it would in a perfect world become targets of public hatred instead of their victims.

Oh, it's straight up justified to double down on nazi shit because people were mean to you for doing nazi shit?

Battery on someone is never justified for a belief or words someone says. Defeat their ideas with debate and steer them towards a non-violent resolution.

Yea that worked great in the World Debate II. Discourse of Normandy in 1945, allies stormed the Marketplace of Ideas so hard Hitler's heart grew three sizes and the nazis were convinved by liberal values after some open-minded heart-to-heart discussion.

… not through “debate” but through discussion or maybe music, see

FWIW I once got assaulted by a neo-nazi specifically for singing. Actually, both for me personally and among the people I know, having been assaulted by a nazi is way more common than having assaulted a nazi. The left is full of pacifists who disapprove of violence, even against nazis and people who approve but would not do it themselves. When's the last time you heard of a pacifist nazi?

And the top prize for the most up-its-own-ass comment of the thread goes to…

Seriously, these Nazi/Commie disputes manifest themselves in strange Windows/Linux disputes, iOS/Android disputes, Tesla/The World disputes, and so forth. In my mind it's all the same and there are many characters involved behaving in this same way.

Wow, how come I never considered that nazism is just a normal opinion like preferring a certain operating system or a car brand.

Honorable mention to the hundred varieties of "oh but how do you know someone's really a nazi before you assault them???" Do libs actually have this much of a hard time identifying a nazi or is there a widespread phenomenon of nice non-fascist type folks eating knuckle sandwiches from people mistaking them for nazis I haven't heard of?

NSFW: this article, mentioned but not linked by the Substack author, is good reading if you want to know about the inciting drama. Choice quote:

Personally I always default to dismissing the chuddy “you radicalized me” explanation as a manipulation tactic coming from people who were already wanting to go there and just looking for an excuse. Also adjacent to abuser logic, like “look what you made me do.” I don’t buy that nazi furry radicalizing, of all things, happens to neutral people.

Tech bro: "Violence is wrong! You should debate nazis, not punch them! I think their ideas are reasonable enough such that if a nazi gets punched, I begin to sympathise with them!"

Nazi: "It is right for me and others like me to cause harm, and my victims deserve it. Everyone else is subhuman. Anything I say publicly is behind a facade of reasonable-ness so that I can continue existing in society."

Tech bro: "Wow, interesting. Reminds me of some of the great thinkers, like Musk and Jobs. Tell me more!"

Nazi: "If given the opportunity to form a coalition of power, I will use that power to satisfy my bloodlust. You saying my ideas are reasonable gives me that space to inflict violence of every kind against all groups that I oppose."

Tech bro: "Sooooo reasonable and valid!"

I rewrote the OP's article 'When "Punch a Nazi" Goes Wrong' to be correct:

Well, I DO always do a double-take when I see one of those North Korean military uniforms, with the giant hat and nine hundred medals. I say they’re ridiculous, but maybe my subconscious thinks they’re cool?

Busted.