Off Topic > Off Topic
Richard Spencer gets bulied by woman in gym, loses gym membership
otto-san:
--- Quote from: Deus Ex on May 23, 2017, 10:54:59 AM ---IMO if white supremacy and national socialist political parties are legitimized, it's because the people on the other side of the debate are doing something really loving wrong. It's the lack of debate in general that's letting people like Richard Spencer gain a following. Shouting down and attempting to silence someone gives legitimacy to their views. Putting them on a platform with people who can provide counters to their ideas and shut them down via debate is the proper way of dealing with ideas we don't like.
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yeah i get what you're saying, tho you have to keep in mind that inherently malevolent, prejudiced ideas like white supremacy don't thrive on reason, they thrive on fear mongering and mob thinking. giving people like this an audience lets them have a megaphone to plant these seeds of fear in a wider net of people, and they don't have to defend themselves rhetorically, they just have to cast reasonable enough doubt, and giving them a chance to lay out an argument for their prejudice that sounds good is enough to accomplish this. this is how any state-sponsored censorship or "boogeymanning" is done; you instill enough fear into the populace that they fall into line with a prejudiced ideology on their own.
having said all that, i'll stress that i'm mostly playing devil's advocate here. i don't see spencer as this much of a threat, and i don't mean to come across as dramatic or anything, but these are valid reasons to avoid publicizing the rhetoric of white supremacists. there's a long history in civilization of using media to drive people to a fabricated enemy with an us vs them mentality, and modern white supremacists are more than capable of causing this to happen again.
ultimamax:
--- Quote from: Mouse droidz 21 on May 23, 2017, 03:25:36 PM ---I think his point is that if Spencer get's revoked because of his beliefs then more gyms will start revoking whoever they please which is unfair
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IIRC Spencer got a full refund for all the money he had given to the gym (which was like two months of membership I think) so it's not as though this is some clever loophole or whatever
beachbum111111:
--- Quote from: Deus Ex on May 23, 2017, 10:54:59 AM --- Putting them on a platform with people who can provide counters to their ideas and shut them down via debate is the proper way of dealing with ideas we don't like.
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Not according to handicaps like Poliwhirl.
GRIMLOCK_:
I don't understand why Leasuresuit and Kimon arn't considered as bad as tony and matthew. They're just as bad or worse
Rooged:
i really don't think my initial message got across
this isn't just a matter of opinion
this is a matter of the work richard spencer has done to influence other members of our society, the influence he has directly propagates his hateful rhetoric
this is how people with already slightly bigoted views can feel like their hateful ideas are acceptable, and thus allow them to grow and become part of who they are, along with the rest of their views they already considered acceptable.
and if you can't see how that leads to events such as public racism, racial ostracization, and hate crimes, maybe some research into the civil rights march in selma in 1965 could give you some insight
tl;dr everyone is subject to public influence if the public influence supports their ideology