You Can’t Reason With Nazis

Over the course of my aforementioned dialogue with the white power folks over at Vanguard News Network, several of my key beliefs about the psychology of extremism were reinforced. These psychological traits can easily be seen when examining the thought processes of other fringe politicos such as anarchists or radical environmentalists. Some of the key points are:

You Are Either With Us Or Against Us: (sound familiar?). Neo-Nazis tend to see the world in (no pun intended) black and white terms. For instance, when I made it clear that I am not a white nationalist, several rather extreme assumptions were made about my beliefs. One poster suggested that my political goal is to bring about “racial amalgamation, and possibly as envisioned by Orwell, the abolition of gender and the sex instinct.” Another poster suggested I go live in Harlem, so as to be around the blacks I love so much. The idea that someone can disagree with white power thought and not be a brainwashed leftist is to then inconceivable.

Our Way Is The Only Way: When I mentioned that some of my views on social issues were far from politically correct, one poster wrote “if you aren't naming the jew, then you are just engaging in fake rebellion.” Once again, if you don’t agree with me 100%, you’re a tool of the system.

Only White Supremacists Can Understand White Supremacy: This is of course linked to the to the above arguments. The implicit argument is that any (white) person who studies white supremacy with an open mind will naturally adopt it as their own ideology. Of course, this also acts as a defense against criticism: They will never have to accept any outside critiques, as outsiders don’t understand their beliefs in the first place.

History And Current Events Can Be Tailored To Fit Our Reality: This led to some really bizarre statements during the exchange, such as that there was no significant restriction on freedom of speech in the Third Reich prior to the war, and that the majority of white American support the aims of the neo-Nazi movement.

My personal favorite comment came at the end of the discussion. One poster suggested that considering the amount of reading I’ve done on the subject, my conversion to white nationalism is inevitable. Another poster responded:
“This depends on whether his ‘irrational impulse’ toward pluralism is the result of unthinking acceptance of propaganda or whether it is an expression of a degenerate's desire to be surrounded by degeneracy.”
From the white power perspective, I think I would have to say the answer is the latter.