White Supremacists Suddenly Very Concerned About Tolerance After Getting Maced

[jpak]

http://gizmodo.com/white-supremacists-suddenly-very-concerned-about-tolera-1797811701

Can’t we all get along? That seems to be the question coming from internet personalities Baked Alaska and Matthew Colligan after they were attacked and doxed while participating in a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

Matthew Colligan and his friend Baked Alaska, whose real name is Anthime Gionet, have spent the past few years tweeting neo-Nazi slogans, advocating for white nationalism, and even saying that “Hitler did nothing wrong.” But they both have dramatically changed their tune in the past 24 hours. This in the wake of a terrorist attack by a neo-Nazi who murdered 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured dozens of others.

Baked Alaska was maced at the neo-fascist rally and Colligan says that he’s received hundreds of death threats after having his personal information posted online, a practice referred to as being doxed. In response, Baked Alaska has now published tweets saying that “violence is never the answer” and that everyone “must come together as a country and try to understand each other peacefully.” Colligan even released a video on YouTube where he said that, “there’s nothing funny about threatening people’s lives.” The life he’s referring to in this case is his own.

But it’s a remarkable turnaround for two people who have spread hateful messages across social media for years. Colligan often proclaims on video and in tweets that “Hitler did nothing wrong” and has earnestly defended this stance on social media. If Colligan truly believes that it’s not funny to threaten people’s lives, that’s hardly consistent with constantly saying that Adolf Hitler’s murder of millions of Jews was fine, joking or otherwise.

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[backscatter712]

1. Tolerance is not a moral precept. It is a peace treaty.

https://extranewsfeed.com/tolerance-is-not-a-moral-precept-1af7007d6376

...We have been brought up to believe that tolerating other people is one of the things you do if you’re a nice person — whether we learned this in kindergarten or from Biblical maxims like “love your neighbor as yourself” and “do unto others.”

But if you have ever tried to live your life this way, you will have seen it fail: “Why won’t you tolerate my intolerance?” This comes in all sorts of forms: accepting a person’s actively antisocial behavior because it’s just part of being an accepting group of friends; being told that prejudice against Nazis is the same as prejudice against Black people; watching people try to give “equal time” to a religious (or irreligious) group whose guiding principle is that everyone must join them or else.

Every one of these examples should raise your suspicions that something isn’t right; that tolerance be damned, one of these things is not like the other. But if you were raised with an intense version of “tolerance is a moral requirement,” then you may feel that this is a thought you should fight off.

It isn’t.

Tolerance is not a moral absolute; it is a peace treaty. Tolerance is a social norm because it allows different people to live side-by-side without being at each other’s throats. It means that we accept that people may be different from us, in their customs, in their behavior, in their dress, in their sex lives, and that if this doesn’t directly affect our lives, it is none of our business. But the model of a peace treaty differs from the model of a moral precept in one simple way: the protection of a peace treaty only extends to those willing to abide by its terms. It is an agreement to live in peace, not an agreement to be peaceful no matter the conduct of others. A peace treaty is not a suicide pact.

The way I see it, the Nazi Right has broken the treaty, and are therefore no longer under its protection. We have no obligation to give them tolerance.

So I am proudly, gleefully INTOLERANT of the alt-right, of neo-Nazis, of the KKK, and of everyone with the least bit of sympathy towards them. They ain't got no humanity. They are the footsoldiers of bloodthirsty maniacs, and THEY MUST BE DESTROYED.

Give me some scalps!

[Phoenix61]

3. I need to memorize that

I get so tired of racist asshats telling me I need to calm down when I call them out. No, I don't. If they want to start spouting stupid shit I consider it my moral duty to shut them down.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. They want to be treated with respect and civility while marching with Nazi flags and chanting

shit about Jews. Fuck them I hope next time they really get their asses kicked.

[MineralMan]

4. See, he's scared now. He's getting back some of what he

has put out there. So, he doesn't like death threats? What a surprise. He doesn't like being maced? Poor baby.

Now he wants people to be nicer to him? Well, good luck with that Mr. Baked Fucking Alaska! We'll keep that in mind, Mr. Colligan. Indeed we will. We'll remember you, too.

I suggest you both, you know, lay low for a good long time. Just shut your yaps and stay out of sight. That's my advice.