As Twitchy reported, teachers and students at UC Berkeley are encouraging professors to cancel classes and administrators to close down the campus next week during “Free Speech Week,” which promises to bring conservative speakers like Ann Coulter to campus.
Seeing as classes could be canceled any time someone with an alternative viewpoint wanders onto school grounds, it’s probably handy that CUNY assistant professor and StudentActivism.net founder Angus Johnston brought his lecture on swastikas and free speech and Nazi punching online Tuesday.
Great thread about what is and is not "free speech." https://t.co/X30DUFWwTb
— MZS (@mattzollerseitz) September 19, 2017
It’s quite a thread, but hang on tight, as there are a lot of twists and turns in this thing.
In Seattle, a guy was walking around with a Nazi armband harassing people. He got punched, and he stopped. Probably won't do it again.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
We can debate the morality of that punch, but tactically, it seems to have been effective. (Strategically? Different discussion.)
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Antifa includes a huge swath of tactics—violent & nonviolent, defensive & offensive. It can't be discussed productively except specifically.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Here's a thing about wearing a swastika armband in public—not in a march, not at a demonstration, just walking around for hours in public.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
It's not just a speech act. It's a test. It's a test to see whether you can get away with it. It's an attempt to shift boundaries.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
It's an attempt to frighten, to cow, to subdue. It's a challenge: "Are you going to stop me?"
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
It's not "political speech" in the way we typically think of that term. It's not simple advocacy of Nazism. It's street harassment.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
So when you ask me what I think of someone getting punched for wearing a swastika on the street? Here's what I think:
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
I think it's the same as a woman pepper-spraying a man for accosting her with sexual insinuations while she walks to the subway.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
I think it's the same as a gay man punching the guy who threatened him and shamed him for kissing his boyfriend goodbye.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
I think it's the same as clocking someone you see yelling at an old Jewish lady, telling her she should have been gassed like her mom.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
We can distinguish coherently between different kinds of speech, and how we respond to them. We do it all the time.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
If your view is that a woman who pepper-sprays a street harasser is an enemy of the First Amdt and the public good, okay. Make your case.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
But if you contemplate that scenario, and you're not revulsed, ask yourself why the swastika case is different.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
And if you come up with an answer to that question that makes sense to you, I'm happy to chat about it. I'd be eager to.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Because I actually do believe in the power of discussion to shape and strengthen social norms, and I believe we need more of that right now.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
So what we need now is more discussion, and also more Nazi punching? We’re gonna skip ahead a bit and borrow someone else’s notes later.
Whew. A lot of people in my mentions seem really confused about a few things, so let me say a little more.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Wonder how that could be; it’s all been so clear up until now.
First, there's a big difference between legal and moral, and between morally obligatory and morally permissible.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
I'm not attempting to establish punching Nazis as a principle of correct behavior, or argue that it should be legal.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
What I'm saying is that wearing a swastika in public is more similar to street harassment than it is to typical political speech.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
But "If we punch Nazis, what's to stop us from punching catcallers and people who shout homophobic slurs?" is never the argument made.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Finally, I find "If we punch people wearing swastikas, what's to stop bigots from punching people wearing pride shirts?" utterly mystifying.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
First of all, "punching people in pride shirts" is already a thing that happens. It's a thing that happens a lot more than punching Nazis.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
The idea that homophobic violence rises and falls in tandem with rates of Nazi punching is not as intuitive to me as it is to some of you.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Second, even a commitment to the First Amendment doesn't demand that we pretend we don't know the difference between good and evil.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
"When is violence appropriate in confronting evil?" is a reasonable question. "Isn't confronting evil the same as confronting good?" is not.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Oh, and I guess there is one more thing.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
I've never punched anyone. I may never punch anyone. I am not encouraging others to punch anyone, or committing to punching anyone.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
My instinctive response to physical assault is, I've discovered, not to fight, but to place my (large) body between attacker and victim.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
So no, I'm not a physical coward, thanks for asking, and no, I'm not a fan of gratuitous brutality either.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
So why the thread?
So why the thread? Because I think we have an urgent need for a shared ethics of resistance—active resistance—to brutality.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
"No violence ever" is not such an ethics, in my view. "Punch all the Nazis" isn't much of an improvement. What would be? Don't know yet.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
Gotta get back to work. Lemon out.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) September 19, 2017
It looks like people sharing the thread think Johnston nailed down his argument pretty solidly.
Great thread on punching Nazis (punch them). ??? https://t.co/QCmDyyxWUl
— murky aura (@mish_meka) September 19, 2017
Thread. This. #PunchNazis https://t.co/VBPSPQ09ze
— (((Aliza))) (@AlizaShane) September 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/faraiwe/status/910299023424311297
Thread. "Speech" my ass. https://t.co/PuudtCmqxg
— Steph Ouaknine (@StephInTeevee) September 19, 2017
We’re not convinced … this reminds us quite a bit of Howard Dean’s week-long argument that the First Amendment doesn’t protect “hate speech.”
https://twitter.com/hboulware/status/910281323918577665
Like the reported $600,000 bill for policing Ben Shapiro’s recent speech at UC Berkeley? The one where local business owners boarded up store windows and ATMs like they were preparing for a hurricane?
Is the issue really that complex? Don’t punch anybody.
https://twitter.com/chadfelixg/status/910282667060596738
Or this …
Mostly peaceful: St. Louis police show what the season’s best-dressed rioters are wearing https://t.co/6sjaQHMKA0
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) September 19, 2017
* * *
Related:
Washington Post: Liberals in 2017 taking a second look at that whole freedom of speech thing https://t.co/B2tJ7KHfLB
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 22, 2017
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