Weekly Blog #1 (9/6)

I have to say, much of what the three men said were things that I was thinking but couldn’t exactly articulate in the way that I wanted to, at least not without making myself seem stupid. I pretty much agreed with everything they said, although the left does their best to shut down the right (As in some cases they very well should), they end up throwing more kerosene on the fire. As I said, nothing “New” to me was stated, although I learned a lot about the Antifa which had confused me before the article. That being said, I pretty much agreed with everything said between Beinart, Sullivan, and Bruni. I 100% believe that people, no matter what they are yelling, should have the right to yell it. Don’t get me wrong, I am a Jew, and hearing Nazi rallies three states away is troubling. In a perfect world, these hate groups don’t exist, we all love each other and live in a peaceful Star Trek society. Unfortunately, they do, and they are endowed under the exact same rights as the rest of us. They should be allowed to march and rally as they please, because that is what the first amendment says. When groups like Antifa shut that down, it only makes them angrier, and more likely for rallies to become riots. That is where the line must be drawn as well, at violence. As long as the groups continue to be peaceful, they have the same rights as we do, because their right to say what they want is what makes America America. The Antifa have to abide by the same rules, I am all for fighting Nazis, but street level violence only makes all the problems worse. I think Beinart makes a good point when comparing the two. In essence of the fact they are violence based political groups representing the extremes of their respective sides, they are the same. They both shut down the other from saying what they want to say via violence and intimidation…in certain footage of Charlottesville, it’s hard to tell who’s who, it just looks like a mob of violence in wild west bandit masks. In other words, you can’t tell the good from the bad. I think this kinda thing is embodied by the examples Sullivan explains about Boston. The group in Boston only recognized themselves as a free speech group, neither Neo-Nazi or white supremacy. Then anyway, the other side shut them down to the point not even the press could get any word of what their message is, and it hurts democracy when the public cannot get the opinions of everyone. I also really liked Bill Maher’s interview in the video. Although, I don’t tend to love Bill Maher, I don’t find him funny, (At least not compared to the Oliver’s and Colbert’s of the world) but I really enjoyed what Frank Bruni had to say, it makes sense. I liked to hear someone speak their mind about something like that, and I think he is right. These days, people like to drive the wedge deeper and deeper between people and social groups. We claim no one can understand our problems so they cant help, which is a bad way to look at it because then we just grow in our differences. I think that in the end we like to define groups, we pick a party, then a sect of that party. Then we are in our own racial and social groups, and suddenly no one is talking, and nobody’s getting anywhere. It is hard (I’m sure) to sit down and talk to a Neo-Nazi, i’m sure there won’t be many intellectual discussions between Antifa and Nazi’s next time they find themselves face to face, we can never really reel in the extremes of either side, so it falls to the rest of us. There will always be disagreements, but the least we can do is educate and talk, and try to strive for a way that we can understand each other and begin to help each other. That is the only way the US democracy will last.