Against Civil Discourse

The recent upheavals in the social media landscape caused by the megalomaniac Musk have fanned the flames of respectability politics. People are rightly alarmed at the rising rates of hate speech on Twitter. At the same time, there are groups of people who argue that free speech needs to be encouraged and that we should engage Nazis in discourse and treat them fairly. I ask – Just Why? First, this viewpoint falsely equates the right to “free speech” in the US and the right to “say anything you want”. Yes, the constitution does give citizens the right to “free speech”, but it does not mean what most people think it does. The constitution allows you to criticize the government or people in power. It does not mean it is okay to call for the extermination of Jewish people because you need to “express” yourself. 

Your freedom of expression stops when you are using your expression to oppress others through hate speech and threats of violence.   Beyond that, what is the value of letting Nazis propagate their hate speech to society? Moreover, how does engaging with Nazis online work to change their stance on human rights and the status of non-white people as humans? I do not need to read the hate speech to know people exist with these ideologies (it is not informing me). I have never seen white supremacists persuaded to change their ideation based on conversations and reason. Allowing hate speech to flourish does not work towards ending hatred.

Ironically a lot of the discourse in online spaces discourages people from talking about harmful acts committed by white supremacists and institutional racism and encourages love and forgiveness. This stance is mind-boggling. How does remaining silent about the violence committed against you help anyone ever? How does remaining silent about the violence you witness being committed against others help anyone? The silence of victims is encouraged by those who are made uncomfortable hearing about the facts of abuse. Those privileged to never think about white supremacist violence do not want to know about the violence that white supremacy enacts daily. It makes white people uncomfortable to know about victims’ pain. This is also an act of power that oppresses victims. Once more, silence on the part of witnesses is the same as being an actor of violence and hate. 

The claim of free speech and the call for civil discourse is a complex form of gaslighting. First, it claims that the hurt caused by violent rhetoric is negligible or nonexistent. The notion that “words cannot hurt” is farcical for anyone who grew up in a violent household or has been called names and threatened physically. Words can debilitate children and cause harm in adults whose psychological well-being can be threatened through prolonged verbal threats and attacks. Some people have been led to suicide through verbal online bullying.

Second, asking for civil discourse is delusional. Just because Nazis may not use vulgarity and speak in metaphors eluding to violent ideas does not make their discourse civil. The appropriate reaction to hate speech and verbal violence may or may not include vulgarity and verbal attacks against Nazis. Rage is an appropriate response to groups of people who want to genocide the marginalized. Calling out Nazis is an appropriate response to Nazis. Shutting down hate speech and threats of violence is appropriate. We do not need to hear the Nazis out. They do not respond to reason. They are not going to read something and change their minds. 

Kafka Knew:

The contemporary world we find ourselves in today was foreshadowed in succinct ways in the work of Franz Kafka.  His short stories and novels centre on neurotic characters trapped in the machinations of state apparatus that are designed to control the population.  The stories he spins of people trapped by the secret police for crimes that are never charged, constant surveillance and the neurosis brought about by working in repetitive low-level dead-end jobs. 

Kafka saw the issues of race and identity from a liminal context.  While he was fluent in German, he lived in Bohemia (now Czech) from 1883-1924 and was Jewish.  Which places Kafka in the heart of WWI amid people who were increasingly anti-Jewish, in a republic at the centre of the conflict geographically. Czechoslovakia incorporated Bohemia in 1918 up until after Kafka’s death in 1939.  Bohemia is ill remembered in US popular culture as a hippie style in the 1960s who wore long hair and recited poetry playing bongo drums in smoke-filled clubs while snapping fingers.  In fact, Bohemia existed in Eastern Europe and was part of the Holy Roman Empire and mostly chirsitan.

There are recordings of Jewish people in the area who traded with the Romans in the 1^st century, with Jewish settlements appearing in the 13^th century.  The history of Jewish life in Bohemia is filled with attacks and discrimination, which intensify with the rise of Nazism in Eastern Europe in the 1930s.    This indicates that Kafka understood the dangers that marginalized people face within societies that have deemed them less than human and disposable.  Reading works such as The Trial, The Castle and “The Judgement”, we see the exploration of existential angst that stems from deep generational trauma.

The absurdity of a land in which no one knows what law they violated and are being punished for [“The Judgement”]; the anxiety of living in a state which is run by a secretive oligarchy that insists you follow unknown rules [The Castle]; and the terror of being stalked, arrested and prosecuted by the powerful with no reason or knowledge of who is in charge [The Trial]:  all seem like story lines written specifically for the moment the US is currently navigating and the experiences of Black and Brown people at the hands of the police.

On the 11^th of April 2021, police shot a 20 year old black male named Daunte Wright to death during a traffic stop near the Minneapolis spot where George Floyd was killed in May of 2020.   Reports say that the young man was pulled over because of an air freshener that was dangled from his rearview mirror.   

https://www.vogue.com/article/daunte-wright-police-killing-what-to-know

In a city that is gripped by the murder trial of Derek Chauvin [the cop who purposefully held George Floyd on the ground with his knee on his neck for 9 minutes of 29 seconds until Floyd was dead from asphyixia], another Black man was murdered by the police.    For Black people in the US, life is truly a Kafka horror show.  Always being watched, arbitrarily stopped and arrested or murdered, with no recourse and layers of hidden bureaucrats, lobbyists and the uber-wealthy protecting and abetting the police behind the scenes. 

The authorities’ quickness to blame the victim and gaslight the millions of Black people who fear for their lives, not knowing if they will be the next one killed for no reason, supports the police oppression and control over Black people for continued economic exploitation.  The bedrock of the US was wealthy white men who “owned” Black people. The police were created to kill Black people who were trying to escape enslavement or who were too educated and rebellious enough to not obey the “master’s” whims no matter how disgusting or dehumanizing. 

Kafka as a Jewish person living in Eastern Europe knew of the experience of a people who were often killed for arbitrary reasons [with the crescendo of events that transpired during WWII] at the hands of racist police, soldiers and regular citizens who were deeply entrenched in the idea that whites were superior to all other people and had a right to rule over all of creation.  The police today are another example of an organization that is designed to contain or destroy non-whites.  They do so at their pleasure and with no recourse or accountability. 

How do we quash white supremacy from within a white supremacist society?  A society that is white supremacist at every level, public and private?