Hurting the delicate feelings of nazis and racists

A lot of people are upset that notorious racist Pauline Hanson has won a senate seat in the recent Australian election (and some additional members of her “team” might win seats too). For those who haven’t heard of her, she’s an ignorant fool who has tried to push her vile bigotry in Australian politics with varying degrees of success for the last 20 or so years.

She’s also one of those cute bigots who have an obsession with saying they aren’t racist (but famously too stupid to know what “xenophobic” means) even though their actual words explicitly target minorities all the time. Originally it was Asians, now it’s Muslims. So she’s not just a vile racist, she’s a gutless equivocating coward who thinks “I’m not racist” is a magic incantation. Like every one of her worthless garbage supporters.

While the existence and periodic success of people like Hanson does make me angry, I’ll tell you want makes me really angry: the ridiculous idea being floated repeatedly in the media that we should be “nice” to these people. That we should “understand” them instead of ridiculing them.

How about FUCK NO!

To be clear, I will happily talk to individuals who have been taken in by this hateful rhetoric in the hope that when some objective facts are presented to them, they can be brought around. But the leaders of these movements who promote outright fascism need to be hit hard and repeatedly. And to anyone who wants to write of “fascism” as hyperbole, Hanson explicitly wants to use the power of the government to enforce her belief that only religions she approves of should be allowed and only clothing she approves can be worn. Pretty much the dictionary definition of fascism.

I’m sure these bleating voices in the media will bring out historical examples of when being nice to fascists have worked in the past because that sure isn’t any history I’m aware of. Unless I’m wrong and World War 2 was a mistake and all everyone had to do was “understand” Hitler and everything would have been OK.

It’s also grating that Hanson blends her disgusting racism with incredible stupidity. She thinks that vaccines not only cause autism (completely disproved) but that they also cause cancer (utterly stupid). She’s also a climate change denier and one of her key advisors thinks schoolkids should be taught to reject the science that proves climate change. She is an utter menace and the idea of treating her with any dignity is fucking offensive.

Beyond Hanson, we’ve had an increasing number of rallies from overtly racist group run by people with explicit Nazi sympathies. These rallies are almost always met by counter rallies of larger groups standing up to their fuckery. To me it seems a no-brainer to counter-protest these scumbags but there is a growing chorus (and not only from conservative voices) that if you come into conflict with self-professed Nazis you’re somehow as bad as them.

To be honest, I think a lot of guys in antifa are there just because they like hitting people and it’s nice to have an ideological shield to justify your predilection for going the biff. But really, when did hitting Nazis become a negative thing? And spare me tripe like “you’re playing into their narrative where they’re the victim”. These pieces of shit get all the validation they need from people like Hanson being given a public platform.

I’ve seen repeated references to “anti-nazi thugs” in media reports and I think it’s worth letting that sink in for a while. That’s the modern media landscape – people engaged in fighting Nazis are thugs. The idea that you’re at the same level as a nazi because you’re aggressively responding to bigots who are actively advocating for the violent suppression and/or expulsion of anyone they don’t like is staggering. History does not have any examples of fascists quietly going home after being allowed to have their rallies unchallenged because they were satisfied their voices had been heard.

Every time hate is allowed to go unchallenged it moves further into the mainstream. How do you think Donald Trump has done so well? He isn’t some inexplicable mutation of the Republican Party, he’s the natural progression of the hate and fear filled rhetoric they’ve been pushing for years. The rise of demagogues around the world has a clear message – when extremism goes unopposed it grows.

So to those tut-tutting from a comfortable distance and saying Hanson and her ilk should be listened to and not mocked, I say hell to the fuck no!