VIDEO: Seattle Neo-Nazi picked the wrong day to wear a swastika armband

The U.S. (and I assume Canada) is a republic that puts a primacy on individual rights. We have a constitution to protect those rights of individuals, having gone so far to establish a bill of rights when the country was founded because it was the essence of our new republic. We have protections built into a our system of government that help us keep a nazi or white supremacist from trampling on the rights of others -- as long as we are all vigilant and exercise our rights.

My point wasn't to reason with an asshole in a nazi armband. You aren't going to change David Duke's mind about anything, and if anything, if you go about it the wrong way, you are giving him the spotlight he wants.

But by reasoning, and refuting his race-based nonsense using moral arguments, economic arguments, age of enlightenment ideas (re: all men should be equal before the law; how wold you like it if you were discriminated against?), you can go a long way toward marginalizing the David Duke's of the world -- showing his ideology for what it is: hatred and bigotry that serves no purpose other than stoking irrational anger. When you do that, you aren't likely to make the shithead in an armband see the light. ... but you can have a big effect on others who feel marginalized and are vulnerable to being sucked in by those people -- who often offer a type of charisma that feeds the anger (and some of their anger is legit -- they feel left behind) of the people who get sucked into those "movements." It's harder than just cold cocking someone, but you are likely to have greater long lasting effect by TALKING to someone -- putting into terms they understand, about discrimination, demonstrating how they are scapegoating people who aren't the source of their real problems, explaining in economic terms how what they think they want makes us all worse off, etc.

As someone who grew up Jewish, I was exposed to a lot of people who survived Nazi death camps, to answer your question. Almost down the line, their attitudes were: 1) Never again, and 2) The way to ensure it never happens again is to keep our stories alive. So, yes, I knew a woman who survived Auschwitz (and others like her; she is not a one off). She still had a tatoo of a number on her arm. In her demeanor, not an ounce of hate or bitterness. She would have that conversation with anyone, including that asshole wearing the armband. Maybe she would have gotten nowhere with him, depending on who he was. But for anyone watching with the power to reason, she would have aquitted herself much better than he would have, and as (or more) importantly, she may have had an effect on someone watching the conversation who was vulnerable to being sucked in by the hatred.

The best ways to deal with ideas (whether you were Copernicus or someone dealing with a Holocaust denier) is to challenge their ideas directly with reason. DEMONSTRATE how wrong and misguided they are, and expose their hatred.