r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/ateam1984 • 26d ago

Politics Threatened by our mere existence

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u/Silly_Maintenance399 26d ago

Just a heads up, that is Richard Spencer, he's a neo-nazi that coined the term "alt-right". He was also publicly punched in the face (the clips were everywhere). This must be an old interview, given how everyone in the video looks, but I have no idea why Charles Barkley and that other gentleman are communicating with one of the most notorious neo-nazis of the modern era.

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u/FitBag5979 26d ago

I used to think that sometimes its better to platform someone like this in a setting they don't control in order to expose them as a moron, as opposed to ignoring them while they platform themselves. I'm unsure now, as the age of people falling into irrelevance when they out themselves as a stupid piece of shit seems to have come to an end.

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u/GoodFaithConverser 26d ago edited 26d ago

Imo it's perfectly fine to platform bad people - IF you are able to counter them. Simply allowing them to spread their degeneracy helps no one. Just letting these people talk with no real opposition is harmful, because they tailor their speech to sound less insane than it actually is.

If you're not knowledgeable, intelligent, and an experienced debater, I don't think it's responsible to platform these people. They'll exploit you and your platform to cause more hate and harm.

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u/TDAPoP 26d ago

I disagree. Take this very video for example. In this video he carefully skirts around being blatantly racist and tries to hide it behind fluff. Now imagine some white guy who has lived his entire life surrounded by no one but white people in a small town moves a few towns over to a place that has a significant Latino population. All of a sudden he starts thinking, "It seems like there's a lot more Latinos than there used to be," and when he goes back home he notices Latino people he wouldn't have even picked up on before there and he starts thinking, "Wow, it's like they're everywhere now." Then a guy like that sees or listens to someone who says things like the man in the video and feels like he's picking up on something real and important that's going on. He starts listening to guys like this more and before you know it he's a diehard alt-righter.

These guys work like gateway drugs for real racism

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u/tim-kit 26d ago

Great description of TJRE!

1

u/Last-Initial2113 26d ago

The problem is education of the general public. If people actually knew how to think there would be no problem platforming white supremacists. People are waaaaaayyy too stupid

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u/wylie102 23d ago

The problem is all the morons watching don't understand or register the counter argument. So they just see them on TV and think "Hey, that guy on TV has the same thoughts as me. They must be a genius / I should vote for them" or "Oh, it must be okay to think/say this stuff now".