It’s Weird to Love the ACLU and Cheer That Nazi Getting Punched
The ACLU famously defended the rights of Nazis to march in public
An essay by comedian/author Matt Ruby. Want more? Sign up here to get my newsletter.
Everyone on the left is giving the ACLU love these days. Makes my little ACLU loving heart swell up.
But plenty of these people are also out there cheering that Nazi getting punched. Feels odd to me.
The ACLU famously defended the rights of Nazis to gather/march in public (in a town filled with holocaust survivors, no less). Seems tough to reconcile these things: “I agree with the ACLU defending the rights of Nazis to march in Skokie but if an individual Nazi speaks on the street I’m cool with a dude sucker punching him.”
Do you think the ACLU would support people showing up at that march and physically assaulting those same Nazis it defended? I find it tough to reconcile being a full throated supporter of the ACLU while also endorsing physically assaulting those who follow through on what the ACLU fights to defend. It does not feel morally or philosophically consistent to me. Pick a lane.
Of course what this guy says is completely abhorrent. But the theory is the most disturbing speech is the speech that most needs to be protected. I know, dude totally sucks. I get it. But if you wanna go full on for civil liberties, you’ve gotta walk the walk.
Also, I’ve seen several Women’s March attendees/supporters turn up on social media to publicly mock Kellyanne Conway’s makeup. Seems like this is just reinforcing the unfair beauty standards that women face compared to their male counterparts.
I’m more impressed by attacks on what she says, not how she looks. My idea: Every journalist she talks to gets a bell and rings it each time she pivots away from the question to one of her talking points. #MoreConbell
We hated on what Trump said about Carly Fiorina’s face. We hated that old white jerk who elbowed the black dude at a Trump rally. We were right to feel that way. Let’s stick with our principles, instead of abandoning them when the targets are people we dislike. That’s something I learned from the ACLU.
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