I Want To Punch You. Will You Defend Me?

Andrew Lynch

We’ve all been there. This feeling of rage comes over you, and you have this desire to punch a person. Maybe it’s a matter of vigilante justice, where you want to exact vengeance on those who aggrieved the innocent. Maybe it’s a small thing but happened to be last in the series. Maybe it’s because of a smug smile that deserves to be wiped off someone’s very punchable face. Maybe you’re a Greaser, and they’re a Soc. Or maybe it’s because someone holds to an abhorrent set of ideologies and you can punch it out of them if hit hard enough.

No matter how you’ve come to it, we’ve all been there. If you have not, you’re lying to yourself. The feeling is human.

Watching someone who “deserves” to be decked can be very satisfying, even cathartic; the primal act of actually attacking someone who is deemed deserving, perhaps even more. It can even make for a satisfying conclusion to a story. However, even if someone objectively deserves to be given a left-hook, is it right to do so?

One fellow writer, Dan, wrote about this subject regarding if it was okay to break the face of a girl if she shoves you. If you didn't read that, spoiler: it’s not okay. Don’t do it.

He covered the subject well, and I don’t want to belabor the point too much, especially when there are many think pieces right now about whether it’s okay to punch a Nazi or not. Spoiler: it’s not okay, no matter what he/she thinks or says. Period.

I have seen a curious trend on the right with this subject. For years, long before Trump was elected, the banner of free speech was immutable. The authoritarian left would always try to use the point of “but what if it’s hate speech? What if it’s the KKK wanting to demonstrate? What if it’s a white supremacist rally? Do you defend their right?” People of principle would always respond “Yes, even in those cases.” They may even quote Evelyn Beatrice Hall and say “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The recent event of Richard Spencer being punched in the face for his beliefs has caused an interesting divide. Now when faced with the potential of defending an actual Nazi’s rights, there are those on the right abandoning supposed principles for what feels good. For what is socially acceptable. Some of this is even read as virtue signaling to the left: “WAIT! We are not racists like the people who voted for Trump! See?!”

This shift is bollocks. A pox on that contingent.

One thing the conservative right also viewed as problematic was the idea of protected classes. This goes back to hate speech and hate crimes, an enemy of equality in the eyes of many. The left has used protected classes to increase an authoritarian agenda. However, over the last decade, with the help of social justice warriors, a new class has been developing under people’s noses: The Undesirables

The Undesirables are not deserving of any protections. They are to be harassed into silence. If they speak, they must be forced out of their livelihoods. If they hold an opinion privately, it must be investigated and broadcast to the public so that The Undesirable cannot hide amongst them. According to the beliefs of social justice warriors, these Undesirables are undeserving of even basic protections of morality and law.

And now these emerging Progressive Conservatives (an oxymoron), are abandoning principles of equality to serve the agenda of the left. They are now actively promoting the doctrine of The Undesirables and do not even realize they are being used.

Hopefully, they wake up before they realize that they’re still Undesirables.

I’m a Greaser, you’re a Soc. I want to punch you for how you act. You probably deserve it. But I won’t because that’s not how society works. You’re free to say what you want about me, and I will defend your right to say it. Punching you might be satisfying, but it would never be okay.

Even if you are a dick.

Go and do likewise.