Demonstrators wave Nazi flags outside local theater performance of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ | CNN
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A group of people carrying Nazi flags demonstrated outside a Michigan community theater performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in a display of antisemitism.

Summary

A group of masked men with Nazi flags protested outside a performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Howell, Michigan, shouting antisemitic slurs.

Audience members were reportedly frightened and needed escorts to their cars. The Fowlerville Community Theatre, which staged the play, described the protesters’ presence as a disturbing reminder of the fear faced by Holocaust victims.

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the display. The incident follows other recent displays of racism in the area.

  • @HikingVet@lemmy.ca
    119•7 months ago

    We should start beating these people who seem to think Nazis are cool. Make it painful to be a bigot.

    • EleventhHour
      14•7 months ago

      Letting them live is too kind. People like this cannot be rehabilitated.

      • @BertramDitore@lemm.eeEnglish
        28•7 months ago

        As a Jew I fully understand your sentiment, but it is a really dangerous thing to normalize. Everyone can change if they’re given the right kind of attention and put in a ton of work being deprogrammed. There are amazing examples of Nazis and white supremacists finally understanding the impact of their hatred. I’m not saying it’s always going to work, probably not even most of the time. But absolutes like this are not a constructive solution. Threatening death, violence, and/or refusing to even try to rehabilitate racists, bigots, and Nazis only gives them more power.

        • @teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
          4•7 months ago

          I’m convinced a good number of these accounts are divisiveness bots, running a psyop to intentionally stoke the flames in left-leaning forums the same way they continue to do on the right. I assume at least one will respond to this calling me a nazi sympathizer. It’s happened before for much less.

          I don’t know what to do about this, because I also acknowledge that there are actual anti-fascist protesters being pulled into the narrative.

          I’m as anti-fascist as they come, but (in addition to your points about winning people over) I also believe in preserving free speech, and acknowledge that there is a very fine line here. It’s free speech to wave a flag with a symbol on it, it’s free speech to say you think that flag represents hate speech and shouldn’t be allowed, but it’s hate speech to openly endorse genocide, and vigilante justice subverts the point of a justice system. If our justice system falls apart…we’re screwed.

            • @teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
              1•7 months ago

              Yeah, notice I’m not advocating for tolerance of hate speech. I’m advocating for a working society where we don’t need to resort to vigilantism. We should be demanding that our police shut down threats of violence and hate speech without tolerance.

              Btw, memes are fun, but I don’t recommend distilling philosophical concepts about ethics to memes. Much less lazily sharing them in place of thoughtful discussion. You run the risk of sharing them in a moment that makes it appear you weren’t paying any attention to the discussion at hand.

        • @Netux@lemmy.world
          2•7 months ago

          We fought a whole war about it. The ones left alive got moved into high government positions with project paperclip, leading to the right wing course we’ve been on ever since. At a minimum they need to be made afraid to broadcast their bigotry.