I do think about it, but what’s the alternative. A slap on the wrist, and they go on with their lives thinking that doing stuff like this is okay? The people that grow up to be racists and other such folks don’t get that way overnight. It starts with things like this where they’re told “they’re just kids, they’ll learn better eventually”
Let’s say that these kids do have their futures ruined, do you think that anyone else will think that doing something like this is okay and do it in the future?
I'm a big black-and-white thinker too, but come on, you gotta see the grey here. Something between a slap on the wrist and destroying someone's life. It's undoubtedly true that a soft approach to these issues breeds more neo Nazis. But it's also undoubtedly true that giving people leeway has given them the room to take a different path. Your instinct just draws you to focus on the former, and others to the latter.
I totally relate to the "what's the alternative". Freedom of speech has loads of amazing benefits which we're right to fear losing if people chip away at it. But some of the adverse effects of freedom of speech really puzzle me. Instinctively you just feel like some ideas shouldn't allow for that breadth of opinion.
How on earth people still celebrate the darkest parts of Nazism is beyond me. It's not even like it's a long time ago. I absolutely cannot relate to that person. But any solution we take comes with it a own downsides and we're really bad at predicting the outcomes of significant societal change.
I was tagged as a bully when I was at school for a brief period of time. If you had a snapshot of that time you might think of me as a harmful part of society. The context around that is really complicated for me to describe.
Essentially there was one person who tried to befriend me in my first year of secondary school. I didn't like her, we just weren't similar people, and she tried even harder to befriend me. It felt like pestering. The class dickhead gave her a mean nickname at some point, and I used it a few times. Of course very little of this was conscious at the time - I was an 11 year old idiot vulnerable to all sorts of environmental pressures. It never went beyond that but it was rightfully classed as bullying.
That brought on an intervention from the school and my parents, and their careful guidance in the right direction did me a lot of good. And I'm a productive and considerate member of society now, as is she. I dont know what would've happened if it went in the other direction. Resentment definitely comes to mind.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't think of me as a dick in that moment. I'd slap my young self silly at that stage. But I'd also give some advice for how to live a better life. I certainly don't think one moment should define me, or anyone. It's easy to dehumanise strangers when you have no context.
