So, Instagram has started pushing threads into users’ feed, and every now and then we get a glimpse into the unmoderated crapshoot that is that app…
L.E.: should be noted I do not have a threads account, have never even downloaded the app, this is sorta like “advertising” to try to convince you to move to their platform.
I wonder how many people actually are nazis and how many are edgy teenagers trying to piss off people online. Surely the number of true shitbags can’t be this high.
When someone tells you they’re a nazi, there’s no downside to taking them at their word.
Maybe but ruining the life of a 15 year old saying dumb shit doesn’t feel quite the same as an adult who knows the weight of their position.
Nazism is a plague on humanity. There is literally no benefit to it existing.
So if it ruins the lives of some dumb kids who think they are cool for mimicking literal hate groups, then so be it. The chance of them joining them at a later date is too huge.
The only other option is to allow Nazis, which is not an option in any way shape or form.
The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi.
If they aren’t and their life is “ruined” because of a mistake, it’s an important life lesson. Your actions have consequences.
I admit I was 15 over 30 years ago, but has something changed between now and then? Because I don’t remember anyone when I was 15 not understanding that “pretending” to be a Nazi to piss people off was beyond the pale.
Maybe these are just Nazis?
Probably the safety of anonymity on the internet is my guess
Yeah, this is a big one, and has been a major reason for a lot of recent terrorism (like doxing and sending threatening packages to people’s family and swatting). Without being held liable for their actions, a lot of shitty people feel emboldened to act in ways they would never dare offline. And that’s not even getting into stuff like the grooming tactics of extremist groups online, convincing kids that minorities are why they think their life sucks.
“Anonymity” on the internet.
You touch on a REALLY interesting point actually, where this whole thing of “being a Nazi” has sorta gone underground in the last several years (evolution = survival of the fittest, so if the feds crack down on any group that CLAIMS to be Nazis, hence all of a sudden the remaining groups that were not cracked down upon yet find it expedient to no longer make that CLAIM… while being essentially the same in every other respect, though this is a vast oversimplification).
Thus there is a truly astonishing number of people who literally are not even aware that they are Nazi-adjacent, perhaps 1 or 2 or 3 steps away from it while continually being groomed to be actual, full-on Nazis, and/or to support their policies. i.e. they might not hate Jews yet, but do worry about why illegals are not being deported with haste b/c they are “stealing our jobs” (never mind that they… are not, at least not those jobs that anyone actually wants - those are facts and always remember that those have no place in brainwashing techniques:-D).
The Alt-Right Playbook series by Innuendo Studies goes into great depth on this subject, if you are interested. Especially “How to Radicalize a Normie” iirc (but I’m not logged in right now and it’s flagged as age-restricted so I cannot double-check - anyway the entire series is VERY eye-opening and I think extremely worthwhile).
So in one sense you are correct: the number of people who unabashedly admit to being “Nazis” has fallen sharply, and the number of teenagers (+ adults:-P) who are shitposting will (thankfully?) never change, whereas the number of people who will be e.g. fascist while claiming to fight against fascists, really, truly, honestly, and unironically actually are fairly high. So high that in fact there is a very good chance of them winning the next presidential election in the USA. And buried within that enormously large group, deeply hidden so that very few barely admit even to themselves more than a tiny portion of that reality, are a core that are true, full-on Nazis. Of the kind that will go, plus take along as many sheeple as they can gather around them (to use as meat-shields as nothing else), to bloody violence to achieve their ends. After all, just like Russia pushing into Ukraine, if nobody acts to stop them, then why not?
They may start off as edgy teenagers, but there’s that whole gazing into the abyss thing you have to worry about