Steve James wrote:Mike, I posted the KKK vid precisely to show that there's a 150 year record of KKK violence in the US, by itself. What's with the desire to preserve history and the ability to ignore it. The KKK and Nazi past is why people protest against them. Simple as that.
How about this, though. Let's say they're equally vile, detrimental and wrong. Why don't we just ban those organizations? How about we treat them the way Trump says we should treat terrorists? I'm down with that.
If we want white supremacists to have freedom speech, let's just do that for ISIL as well. If we want ideological relativism, let's just make it consistent. If the way to demonstrate because they can't have sharia law, why protest?
I took it for granted that everyone knows about the history of the KKK and Nazis and that they are completely discredited in all American institutions of government, academia, the press, etc.
I don't think banning ideas and their resulting organizations is the way to go in America, I don't agree about banning hate speech, etc., but I think things will work out fine if there is anywhere close to a balanced amount of attention given to extremist ideologies and violence anywhere they're found.
The problem I see is that extreme leftist ideology and violence is ignored by the media. Sometimes it is tacitly approved, perhaps because of of past (and current) violence shown in that KKK video, where people were either in authority or had overwhelming majority or overwhelming force to commit it. Perhaps members of Antifa see what they do as "civil disobedience" against actual or potentially extremely violent people, and do not see themselves, as I and others do, to be the instigators of violence against mostly benign political opponents.
They are "head-hunting" journalists, authors, etc., attacking them on the streets with professional looking videographers in tow, poisoning one in a restaurant in Iceland, etc.
However, it's gone too far in one direction on many levels of society. The push back against this includes a tiny percentage of white nationalists and other racists, but the majority push is really being done by a large segment of mainstream society, including Trump supporters, some whom voted for him only because he can irritate the left, who otherwise refuse to engage in discussion, preferring to shout down their opponents.
These are people who eventually spill out into the streets because their ability to organize politically and express themselves has been, to a significant extent, taken away by a convergence of leftist zealots that include Antifa, as well as students radicalized in university for equality of outcome and against diversity of ideas. Those with differing opinions have to choose the same side of the police barricade as "their" version of extremists, finally resulting in the horrible violence recurring this year at various rallies in the USA, and in nearly all other Western countries.