Name and Shame is Fair Game

I find it funny that Nazi, Klan members, Alt-Right and other bigots being identified, named and shamed after their participation in the torch-lit march in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend is drawing any type of negative backlash.

Freedom from speech is not freedom from consequences, no matter how much people whine about the consequences of their speech.  Freedom of speech means that you can say something ignorant and bigoted without the government stopping you.  It also means that I can respond by calling your statement ignorant and bigoted.  I can even share my opinion that you are an ignorant bigot.  I can shout to anybody who will listen that you have made ignorant, bigoted statements and that I think you are an ignorant bigot.

Unless I’m saying something that qualifies as slander or libel (which cannot be the case if what I’m saying is true or a reasonably and honestly held opinion), or there is some actual crime committed along the way, I can say what I want about your hateful, divisive rhetoric.  How others respond to that is up to them as well.  If your parents, university, peer groups, or others do not want to associate with you becuase they learn something true about you, that is your problem.

My issue with people taking offense or otherwise claiming that there is something wrong with naming and shaming the people involved in the Unite the Right (Unite the Reich, is probably a more appropriate name) or other similar events is this:  If your beliefs are such that you do not want the world to know about them, you need to reexamine your beliefs.

People are often more willing to espouse their white nationalist or other racist beliefs than they were several years ago.  While they are doing this, many of them seem to want to hide behind the perceived anonymity that either large crowds or the internet provide to them.  They are either too ashamed or too cowardly to show their views openly and without the perceived protection of anonymity.

The United States is a democracy whose people care deeply about free speech.  Generally speaking, this is not a country where people need to worry about getting killed just for their beliefs. In a country such as this, any belief worth having is worth having openly, freely and proudly.  If you have beliefs that you cannot share in a society such as this, even unpopular ones, then your beliefs are the problem.

These people are embarrassed or ashamed.  They should be embarassed and ashamed.  They should feel every ounce of social pressure available exerted upon them.  They should understand that their selfish, 19th century approach to race relations is not what the vast majority of Americans want it to be.  They need to see that, to the extent they are being marginalized, they are marginalizing themselves.

They need to understand that like it or not, Americans are white, brown, black, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and that they can either stand with their fellow Americans, or be run over by the progress that is made when people of diverse backgrounds and upbringings work together to build and further one of the most diverse, dynamic, resilient and powerful societies in the history of the world.

I hear the counter-argument though.  “Look at what happened to that guy at Google.  He got fired for sharing his beliefs just because they were not part of the liberal social justice warrior talking points.”  “We have to march on Google to stand up for ourselves.”

That man, who I am not going to name here, did not get fired for sharing his beliefs.  That man attacked the abilities of females in general to do certain kinds of work in the tech field.  He lumped them together based upon nothing but their gender and pseudo-science.  That man did not get fired for having objectionable beliefs.  He got fired for disrespecting his coworkers and his bosses, and for damaging the image of one of the largest, most visible, and powerful tech companies in the world.  He did not get fired for trying to start a discussion, he got fired for trying to start a fight.  He was not targeted for his beliefs, but for his actions that damaged the company.

At its core, the problem with these Alt-Right activists is that their real goal is to start a fight.

I have no issue with the fact that pictures are going around naming, shaming and identifying the people who took part in the deplorable rally to save the monument to an American traitor.  If that crosses over to harassment, doxing or similar behavior, I do have a problem with that and so should you. I do not have a problem with families, friends, communities and groups vocally and publicly disavowing these people and their hateful, divisive ideas.

Most people clearly do not want to be associated with this movement, as evidenced by most of the responses to the rally, including those from the Detroit Red Wings and Tiki Brand.  Reputation is important, and most people, including many of these white nationalist, recognize that association with white nationalism and its similar movements are toxic to reputations.  That is why people want to disavow any connections to them and why many of its own members want to hide in the proverbial shadows.

However, if you are going to bring this filth out into public and march in support of racial hostility, you do not get to hide.  You should not get to hide.  You do not get to drag down the public discourse of this nation and then sit back without any consequences.  You made your filthy bed, now you get to lie in it.  If your acting upon your hate costs you friends, family, reputation or the respect of others, or any of the other things you can lose when you lose those things, that is entirely your fault and your problem.  If you do not like it, have the shame you ought and keep your hate to yourself.  Do not burden the rest of us with your insecurities.

I'm Just Going to Say It...

I hate Donald Trump.  It is not enough to say I disagree with him, or that I do not respect him as a leader or even as a man.  I hate him.

I do not say that lightly.  As I have gotten older, I try very hard to avoid using the word “hate,” because it is overused to the point of being nearly meaningless.  It also never has a positive influence on a course of events.  That’s part of what my problem is with the political tide that has brought him to power.  Hate is not something I want to teach my children to embrace.  I am well aware of Dr. King’s philosophy that hate cannot drive out hate, that only love can.  I agree.

That said, I reiterate that I hate Donald Trump.  I do not just hate what he stands for (today).  I do not hate most of the people who voted for him.  It is not worth belaboring the point with specifics, but I hate him as a person for what he does and the way he treats people.  I’m human.  I cannot help the way I feel, and I cannot say that I am proud of hating anybody, but I can help the way I respond to it.

So, when I say “I hate Donald Trump,” do not mistake what that means.  It does not mean that I am going to throw a temper tantrum about him being in power.  It does not mean that I intend, or want anybody else to use violence, coercion, intimidation or any other illegal, immoral or uncivilized tactic to protest or fight him.  In fact, those are some of the actions that he has supported or encouraged within his own supporters that are part of why I hate the man.  I have no intent to beat a monster by becoming one myself.

It must, as always, be love, truth and justice with which we fight the monster that is Donald Trump.  I do not know if we can defeat the monster that way, at least not in the foreseeable future.  I do know that using anything but love, truth and justice to fight him, fighting him on his own terms with his own tactics will destroy the part of America that is worth fighting to protect.  This country is  too important, and has been too good to me for me to contribute to its further disassociation with reality, practicality and basic civility.

I do not recognize a country shaped by his warped way of thinking as anything approaching the America I love.  It is that love that is most of my fuel.  I hate Donald Trump.  That is a portion of what fuels me these days.  Hate will never be my weapon in this fight though.  Hate cannot build, it can only destroy.  I know that.  My hate is inescapable baggage that I have to reconcile, but it is not what I bring to the negotiation table or the political battlefield.  In other words, my hate is MY problem and I have no right to make it anybody else’s problem any more than they have the right to make their hate America’s problem.

Yes, I hate the man and what he stands for.  But, like the overwhelming majority of people in this country, even most of the (minority of) people who voted for the man, I am better that Donald Trump.  I don’t know you, but the extreme odds are that YOU are better than Donald Trump.  I will not let him push me into acting like the worst of what America has to offer.  Regardless of your political viewpoints, you should not let him either.  When people of all political persuasions are able to have honest and civil discussions and look for actual solutions to our problems, the malevolent garbage that comes from Donald Trump’s mouth, mouthpieces and Twitter client will cease to matter.

Who knows… maybe Donald will discover a level of civility and honesty he has not demonstrated in what passes for his political career.  If he does, as an American, he is welcome to a seat at the table in my book.  Until he does he must be opposed with every fact, every ounce of love and every ounce of civility we can muster.

Donald can have his stupid wall… The rest of us should be building bridges.

Looking For Answers in Colorado

To start, I don't expect to find any answers about what happened in Colorado.  My only hope is to figure out what questions are the right ones to ask.  Our initial question is to ask "why?"  It's not a bad question to ask, but it is too broad.  Without narrowing the question, trying to figure out "why" would be too large of a task to expect to even make progress on.  Until more information comes out, any discussion of motivation or thought process of James Holmes, the shooter, is merely an exercise in speculation.  Still, there some broad themes worth pondering.

My first thought was wondering what connections people would draw between the shooter/shooting and the Dark Knight Rises.  I'll admit that as a huge fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, I risk getting defensive.  With that disclaimer in mind, I think that drawing connections between this or any movie is a folly.  While it's certainly been said before, it's worth repeating.  A mind fragile enough to be pushed over the edge by a movie would almost inevitably be pushed over the edge by something.  While there are certainly similarities between the way the attack was planned and the type of attacks executed by The Joker in The Dark Knight (not to mention the outrageous hair color), this is not evidence that Heath Ledger's amazing character had any influence in motivating these murders.  That said, it's difficult to deny that there wasn't some influence upon the form that his murderous ambition took.

Holmes was, by all accounts, a very smart young man.  Enough attention has been paid to his brain power that it's worth asking why nobody saw what most would consider a brain defect.  While the dream of predicting this type of behavior through study of the brain may be a reality someday, today it remains a dream.  Many will try to look back at "signs" that were visible ahead of time.  We should not fall into the trap of this "confirmation bias" type of retrospection.  I can only hope that when we finally achieve the necessary understanding of the brain to make these predictions without the benefit of hindsight, we not only have the ability to treat the problem, but we also have a way to give people access to the care they need.

Finally, there are the guns.  While it's fair to say that James Holmes killed the people in that theater, it's undeniable that his guns allowed him to do that much more efficiently.  I'm not a gun owner, but as a Wisconsinite, I appreciate the place that guns have in our culture.  That said, the availability of guns to those who have no business owning them is something that should trouble us all.  I cannot claim to have the solution to this problem, but I think that it's time to reevaluate how we think about guns.  Marijuana faces exponentially higher restrictions than guns, and I doubt you can find credible statistics to show that pot is as dangerous as a gun in the hands of a madman.

These are just some of the broad themes that the tragedy in Colorado brings to my mind.  I'm sure that as more information comes out, further questions will be raised.  Answers, however, will be much more difficult to find.