Comments on: How to Constructively Protest Hate Speech

By: Pledge a penny to stop hate « rjjago.wordpress.com

Pledge a penny to stop hate « rjjago.wordpress.com — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:15:44 +0000

[...] No stasi tactics of ratting on your neighbours, no HRC’s taking down newspapers and authors, just plain old citizens exercising their rights and taking on hate-mongers face to face: Michigan, unfortunately, has become a home to many neo-nazi types recently. So I’ve had to deal [...]

By: Tim Aladyetz

Tim Aladyetz — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:11:11 +0000

Last year, when YAF brought Tom Tancredo to East Lansing, kids here tried the Smith College approach. In the end, it just garnered bad press for the protesters, charges for a few of them, and resulted in Bristow painting YAF the victim for months on end.

By: Mark D.

Mark D. — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:55:52 +0000

I’d say the MSU students led the more effective protest — shouting down the speakers may be more satisfying, but it also makes the folks you’re protesting look like martyrs, which doesn’t help.

As for Kyle Bristow, my guess is that his parents either dropped him on his head too hard, or not hard enough.

By: Philip

Philip — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:46:19 +0000

To josh.f13 comment Fortunately, I think groups like Young Americans for Freedom are an extreme minority that will continue to spin its wheels. Once can hope, anyway.

The Michigan Republican Party has thrown it’s support behind YAF and even called former chair Kyle Bristow just the kind of kid they want.

Read more about it here
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/1/1287/67991

By: Bug Girl

Bug Girl — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:54:11 +0000

I have removed the link in Comment #3 to a white supremacist website, per comments policy.

In case anyone is interested, the link was to overthrow.com, which is chock full of the N word, and a whole host of other hateful crap. And Swastikas.
Ugh.

By: Will Rhodes

Will Rhodes — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:01:47 +0000

What I like about that is that students protested – students should protest about many things. What I have seen over the years is that peoples ability and right to protest is being eroded everywhere. No State or country has the right to stop protest!

and uses some very distorted readings of some very specious papers to try to prove that homosexuality is an unnatural choice

He is a six-pack short of a 2-4, unfortunately – there are many like him.

By: myrmecos

myrmecos — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:10:24 +0000

Wow Bug Girl. You have a real, actual Nazi commenting on your blog (#3). I didn’t think those people even existed any more.

(Well, I met a few descendants of post-war Nazis while I was living in Paraguay, but they were of the inbred, 6-fingered sort that emerges after a generation or two of breeding a Master Race from too small a founding gene pool. A fitting end to the enterprise, if there ever was one. But I digress.)

By: Bill White

Bill White — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:42:46 +0000

Funny. I know how to constructively deal with anti-racist speech, and it doesn’t cause me any angst. It starts with a club, and ends with a communist in the hospital …

By: josh.f13

josh.f13 — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:56:51 +0000

As a young person in Metro Detroit, it had surprised me while growing up how prevalent racism is here in Michigan. Your taught that racism is wrong. So when you see it or hear it in person, its still comes as a shock.

Of course, as I got older and read about the circumstances and the history of Detroit, I began to realize, “Well, DUH!”… Not that that makes any of it right.

Fortunately, I think groups like Young Americans for Freedom are an extreme minority that will continue to spin its wheels. Once can hope, anyway.

By: DougT

DougT — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:05:34 +0000

The heckler’s veto, while it can feel very satisfying, can actually be a sign of weakness in your position. Anyone can use it- you don’t have to be right and you don’t have to have a cogent argument. You just have to be loud.

It doesn’t fell very good sitting quietly holding a sign while a hate-filled asshat spews venomous lies, particularly if they are directed against you. It’s hard to wait and only later calmly make your case. Still, you can only do it if you have a case to be made. And you get to call folks on it if they turn around and try to use the heckler’s veto on you. I’m with the MSU students here.