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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/20/to-punch-or-not-to-punch-the-american-lefts-existential-crisis/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/20/to-punch-or-not-to-punch-the-american-lefts-existential-crisis/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">To Punch or Not to Punch – The American
Left’s Existential Crisis</h1>
<p class="post_meta"> <span class="post_author_intro">by</span>
<span class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/yoarlit0099/"
rel="nofollow">Yoav Litvin - September 20, 2017</a></span>
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<p>This past Monday <a
href="http://heavy.com/news/2017/09/nazi-swastika-armband-seattle-d-line-knocked-out-pictures-photos-youtube-video/">a
video</a> of a man knocking out a swastika-brandishing
neo-Nazi went viral on social media.</p>
<p>Prior to his intimate acquaintance with the cold and
hard Seattle sidewalk, police <a
href="https://twitter.com/SeattlePD/status/909843600355213312">received
reports</a> the Nazi was instigating fights with
passersby, while <a
href="http://www.theroot.com/antifascists-hunt-down-knock-out-nazi-for-harassing-bl-1818524032">another
account </a>stated he threw a banana at someone,
yelled racist propaganda in the street and harassed a
black man on a train.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p><b>Faux morality versus strength and unity</b></p>
<p>While some leftists support and even celebrate the
textbook <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Q_hEE5Cpo">straight
right punch</a> as a victory for the street over
oppression, others condemn it as counterproductive and
even bemoan the abuse of the Nazi thug.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But in fact, this sort of faux morality serves the
exact opposite, i.e. right-wing agenda.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://theconversation.com/charlottesville-attack-shows-homegrown-terror-on-the-right-is-on-the-rise-78242">right-wing
racists</a> and representatives of the state, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/police-brutality-misconduct-and-shootings?mcubz=1">most
directly police</a>.</p>
<p>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
href="http://newjimcrow.com/about">a new Jim Crow</a>.
Furthermore, <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31/the-fbi-has-quietly-investigated-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-law-enforcement/">white
supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement</a>,
rendering non-whites increasingly susceptible to
prejudice and harassment.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>In so doing, this group of liberals and leftists
undermine the already dwindling strength and fragility
of the left.</p>
<p><b>Street justice </b></p>
<p>But truth be told – this debate is somewhat irrelevant.
Liberals and leftists can preach nonviolence till
kingdom come, and even <a
href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/antifa-mirrors-alt-right/">parrot
Trump’s villainization of Antifa</a>, yet the American
urban reality will continue to exist in a different,
less sterile, sphere.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/07/17/us-inequality-crisis-worst-industrialized-world-trump-will-make-it-worse">worst
inequality in the industrialized world</a>. 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><b>Nonviolence – but one means to an end</b></p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SN7Pko_jCM">equality
and justice</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31515-unregulated-capitalism-is-destroying-the-planet">life
on planet Earth</a>, for that matter.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.newsweek.com/trump-wants-provide-police-military-equipment-practice-obama-prohibited-after-655926">continued
militarization of law enforcement</a> and the <a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/what-it-was-living-under-police-occupation-ferguson/">adoption
of occupation-style policing techniques</a>, 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 <a
href="https://972mag.com/on-the-palestinians-legal-right-to-fight-the-occupation/30855/">is
both moral and legal</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df5kaol1lCs">by
any means necessary</a>.<b> </b></p>
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<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>Yoav Litvin</strong>
is a Doctor of Psychology/ Behavioral Neuroscience.</em>
</p>
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