Angry in the Great White North

In San Francisco, a contributor to IndyBay who goes by "Local anarcho-communist" gives support to vandals and rioters protesting, well, everything:

Let me just say that trashing PG&E, Wells Fargo and other corporate targets is right on. PG&E has been screwing the people of San Francisco for decades and their greed needs to be confronted and fought by many means.

These sorts of people push the notion of the right to free speech and free expression to the extreme. If these people were scrupulously fair about it, they would insist that trashing private property is an acceptable means for any group to promote its agenda.

But it would be silly of me to expect that. On the other hand, I would expect that these people, being such fans of the right to agitate politically, would at least demand that a relatively private political discussion be allowed to continue unmolested. Boy, was I wrong:

Two white anarchists, randomly selected a table at Muddy Waters coffeeshop on 16th and Valencia. While they planned to take some time to read for an upcoming study group, they quickly realized what was happening at the table next to them. A neo-Nazi and young woman had come together and it seemed that she was loosely affilited with right-wing political activity already. He explained to her that while he grew up in the Bay Area, he's been traveling to help build up chapters around the country. Back out in front of Muddy's, a group of friends, all white, mostly queer and majority women & genderqueer, gathered in front determined to "do something". After a brief discussion about the very real possibilities that he might react with violence the group agreed that two of the women would confront the neo-Nazi and tell him that he was not welcome in the communty. The two women went to the back of the cafe and confronted the neo-Nazis, telling him that they wouldn't allow them to continue a conversation about building white supremacist organizing, and to "get the hell out".

The possibility of violence is very real. If someone listened in to my private conversation then told me to get the hell out, I might get violent too.

"I'm just having a conversation and this is America and we have free speech" he replied. The two women replied, "We will judge you and this does relate to us, as white people in this society racism impacts us and we will not tolerate you organizing in this cafe. You can't do this in our city and you have to leave."

I'm no fan of neo-Nazis, paleo-Nazis, or the Klan. I expect the authorities to keep a careful eye on all extremist organizations, on all parts of the political spectrum, and to prosecute crimes vigorously.

In a world run by "progressives", though, there will be no need of authorities, trained in the law, and overseen by an impartial court. Every right thinking person will be a court unto himself or herself, fully qualified to pass judgement on the words, actions, and thoughts, of others. Punishment is meted out by the unruly mob.

"We will judge you..."

Scary words.

[More from San Francisco: 1 2 3 4 5 6]