Democracy is essentially always incompatible with a free society in the first place. Eating dinner with a Nazi isn’t helping Nazis seize power. You’ve probably met genuine sociopaths, people who want to kill or severely harm others. Should you pre-judge them? Is that actually useful for anything?
I know someone online who privately admitted to me to being a pedophile, and is very suicidal. They claim to have never victimized anyone, just thought about it. It makes me very uncomfortable. But I also think if I bluntly said that it would make them more self-destructive, feeling more isolated, and feeling more like they shouldn’t be honest. I think that would lead to them being more likely to victimize someone. This isn’t just a utilitarian calculus though, I genuinely do not want them to suffer. Even though they have disgusting thoughts that could manifest in the suffering of others. What would you do?
These things are not comparable. This person you spoke to has urges, not beliefs. He clearly doesn’t believe it’s right to want to fuck kids. Nazism is a personal political view, and that view includes the belief that I don’t have the right to exist. That the people I love don’t have a right to exist. That is not an exaggeration, that is a fact, and you have to accede it as reasonable to work with someone who believes it. I do not, never have and never will, and I’m sick and tired of people pretending like a Nazi will just up and abandon the monstrous core principles of their entire platform. You will never budge them, they will only drag you down to their level if you try. Other opinions are fine; Nazis are not.
Democracy is essentially always incompatible with a free society in the first place. Eating dinner with a Nazi isn’t helping Nazis seize power. You’ve probably met genuine sociopaths, people who want to kill or severely harm others. Should you pre-judge them? Is that actually useful for anything?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q5DoYyV5RU
I know someone online who privately admitted to me to being a pedophile, and is very suicidal. They claim to have never victimized anyone, just thought about it. It makes me very uncomfortable. But I also think if I bluntly said that it would make them more self-destructive, feeling more isolated, and feeling more like they shouldn’t be honest. I think that would lead to them being more likely to victimize someone. This isn’t just a utilitarian calculus though, I genuinely do not want them to suffer. Even though they have disgusting thoughts that could manifest in the suffering of others. What would you do?
These things are not comparable. This person you spoke to has urges, not beliefs. He clearly doesn’t believe it’s right to want to fuck kids. Nazism is a personal political view, and that view includes the belief that I don’t have the right to exist. That the people I love don’t have a right to exist. That is not an exaggeration, that is a fact, and you have to accede it as reasonable to work with someone who believes it. I do not, never have and never will, and I’m sick and tired of people pretending like a Nazi will just up and abandon the monstrous core principles of their entire platform. You will never budge them, they will only drag you down to their level if you try. Other opinions are fine; Nazis are not.