[News] To Punch or Not to Punch – The American Left’s Existential Crisis

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Wed Sep 20 11:24:25 EDT 2017


https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/20/to-punch-or-not-to-punch-the-american-lefts-existential-crisis/ 



  To Punch or Not to Punch – The American Left’s Existential Crisis

by Yoav Litvin - September 20, 2017 
<https://www.counterpunch.org/author/yoarlit0099/>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This past Monday a video 
<http://heavy.com/news/2017/09/nazi-swastika-armband-seattle-d-line-knocked-out-pictures-photos-youtube-video/> 
of a man knocking out a swastika-brandishing neo-Nazi went viral on 
social media.

Prior to his intimate acquaintance with the cold and hard Seattle 
sidewalk, police received reports 
<https://twitter.com/SeattlePD/status/909843600355213312> the Nazi was 
instigating fights with passersby, while another account 
<http://www.theroot.com/antifascists-hunt-down-knock-out-nazi-for-harassing-bl-1818524032>stated 
he threw a banana at someone, yelled racist propaganda in the street and 
harassed a black man on a train.

Incidents like this inevitably raise the question – to punch or not to 
punch a Nazi? What is the correct, wise and moral stance for the left?

*Faux morality versus strength and unity*

While some leftists support and even celebrate the textbook straight 
right punch <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Q_hEE5Cpo> as a victory 
for the street over oppression, others condemn it as counterproductive 
and even bemoan the abuse of the Nazi thug.

This latter group of liberals and leftists reason that violence breeds 
more violence and is thus immoral, that support for those who punch 
Nazis is akin to forfeiture of the left’s high moral ground, which leads 
to a loss in the court of public opinion, and that this sort of clash 
promotes the Nazis’ victimhood narrative.

But in fact, this sort of faux morality serves the exact opposite, i.e. 
right-wing agenda.

People who adopt this stance are in effect paternalistically chastising 
fellow citizens for confronting oppression. Thereby, they discount and 
distance themselves from the very real struggles against racial 
persecution, street violence and inequality in general, which are 
perpetuated by both right-wing racists 
<https://theconversation.com/charlottesville-attack-shows-homegrown-terror-on-the-right-is-on-the-rise-78242> 
and representatives of the state, most directly police 
<https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/police-brutality-misconduct-and-shootings?mcubz=1>.

The public’s trust in state systems of justice has been negatively 
affected by the lack of accountability in law enforcement for 
racially-motivated brutality and the corruption of the judicial system 
that have significantly contributed to the creation of a new Jim Crow 
<http://newjimcrow.com/about>. Furthermore, white supremacists have 
infiltrated law enforcement 
<https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31/the-fbi-has-quietly-investigated-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-law-enforcement/>, 
rendering non-whites increasingly susceptible to prejudice and harassment.

Thus, this approach is immoral and strategically unwise as it abandons 
those masses who need the most protection against right-wing repression 
in its various expressions, and directly feeds into the fascistic white 
victimhood narrative by castigating the anti-fascist (in this case the 
puncher) and sympathizing with the Nazi (the punchee).

In so doing, this group of liberals and leftists undermine the already 
dwindling strength and fragility of the left.

*Street justice *

But truth be told – this debate is somewhat irrelevant. Liberals and 
leftists can preach nonviolence till kingdom come, and even parrot 
Trump’s villainization of Antifa 
<https://www.truthdig.com/articles/antifa-mirrors-alt-right/>, yet the 
American urban reality will continue to exist in a different, less 
sterile, sphere.

Here, city streets are largely populated by struggling people, many of 
whom are non-white immigrants and their families who survive at the tail 
end of a society with the worst inequality in the industrialized world 
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/07/17/us-inequality-crisis-worst-industrialized-world-trump-will-make-it-worse>. 
Together with diminishing public welfare institutions and the 
aforementioned corruption of law enforcement and the judicial system, 
the American urban reality produces alternative, street forms of justice.

Within this context, it is immoral, privileged and counterproductive to 
castigate urbanite citizens for confronting racial violence, whether 
systemic or independent, for they are on the front lines of a struggle 
that the left, including privileged liberals and lefties, must wholly 
embrace.

*Nonviolence – but one means to an end*

The context of this debate is one in which many liberals and leftists 
have adopted the notion that nonviolence is an end in and of itself, 
instead of a means among several that are aimed at achieving the ends of 
equality and justice <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SN7Pko_jCM>.

The idea that nonviolence is the only moral tactic available in the 
leftist arsenal and that it alone can lead to a just world plays into 
the hands of those who control the current systems of oppression. Thus, 
it must be continuously challenged and reassessed if there is any chance 
of survival for the left and of life on planet Earth 
<http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31515-unregulated-capitalism-is-destroying-the-planet>, 
for that matter.

Nonviolence is an important and admirable tactic, but in certain 
circumstances, its sole implementation does nothing to tackle 
oppression. The lack of real justice for many communities in America, 
together with the continued militarization of law enforcement 
<http://www.newsweek.com/trump-wants-provide-police-military-equipment-practice-obama-prohibited-after-655926> 
and the adoption of occupation-style policing techniques 
<https://www.thenation.com/article/what-it-was-living-under-police-occupation-ferguson/>, 
create a situation whereby the left, and the ideals it represents, is 
faced with an existential crisis. In more extreme, yet eerily similar 
circumstances of occupation, violent resistance is both moral and legal 
<https://972mag.com/on-the-palestinians-legal-right-to-fight-the-occupation/30855/>.

So does that mean that violence is promoted or favored over nonviolence 
in every situation? No, of course not. It means that violence is 
sometimes a necessity. A nuanced approach is essential here.

Do all leftists need to engage in violent tactics? No. But all leftists 
should understand that castigating those who employ violence, i.e. 
defensive aggression, against those who promote bigotry and oppression, 
is counterproductive and often immoral. In other words, in order for the 
left to present itself as a true alternative that is supportive of 
everyday citizens’ struggles and opposed to the continued oppression of 
the state and its right-wing metastases, it must embrace people’s rights 
for justice, equality, defense and dignity by any means necessary 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df5kaol1lCs>.**

/*Yoav Litvin* is a Doctor of Psychology/ Behavioral Neuroscience./

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