this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No we all said watch the fuck out the nazis are buying up everything and even wrote a nazi playbook. The fuckin wolf was real all along. Fucking morons just decided to ignore. The boy lied in the story. He didn't lie here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You personally? Sure. But there have been people online misusing the word (and similar things) for fucking ages, going back at least as far as 2010.

This goes back a lot farther than the last election campaign, farther back than Trump's first "reign", farther back than his first campaign even.


Background on Jon Stewart for those unaware of himJon Stewart has been out of the public eye for a long time, so I expect there's some people around unaware of his work. Did a comedy news show for years where he tore into the bullshit going on in the world, in the news, and in news orgs like Fox hiding behind a false "both sides" narrative back when they still cared enough to fake it. He got Crossfire cancelled when they were stupid enough to invite him on for an interview and were shocked that he wasn't willing to be a comedian on a show that claimed to be real news and he instead systematically and thoroughly called them out as the travesty they were.

Jon Fucking Stewart called out the dilution of labels through overuse in his closing speech at the Rally to Restore Sanity in 2010. The rally done as a reaction to the Tea Party rally in D.C.

That is to highlight that the "boy who cried wolf" shit was happening all the way back then and was already a big problem.

"If we amplify everything we hear nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate--just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe not more. The press is our immune system. If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker--and perhaps eczema."


People didn't get the fucking message, which gave cover for the real racists and nazis to slither around and significantly helped to get us where we are today.

Where an over rich manchild clearly on some sort of substances can give two half assed sieg heils, and then follow it up with the most half assed excuse during a fucking presidential inauguration and instead of being tackled by security and hauled the fuck off never to be seen again, people are sitting around giving him the benefit of the doubt.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Nazis, fascists, ect were a problem as early as 2010. All the people who are doing nazi shit now, i grew up with them, they were always like that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

Not saying they never existed or they weren't a problem. I'm trying to emphasize that overuse of those labels towards the undeserving has allowed the true problem people (actual nazis, fascists) to get by with the benefit of the doubt.


Look, at this point I'm not sure what to say except to lean back on lived experiences of myself and a number of friends.

Some specific "my friend is black" style examples from my social group, if you'll pardon me:

  • racial/ethnic minority who is also lgbt+
  • one of the most politically active people I know, involved in countless public works and community supporting projects, who at one point worked teaching kids stuck in juvie skills they could use to make money legally once released
  • union organizer and rep, can't even drop that shit for a game of DnD, sidetracking the plot to try and unionize side characters
  • multiple and diverse PoC

I've seen each individual there and people like them, be called all sorts of horrible labels (mainly online) that do not fit them or even the worst possible interpretation of the opinion they were espousing at the time. I've seen them called capitalist bootlickers, nazis, racists.

One who was only stopped from joining the US Antifa movement by being overseas taking classes in Australia called a fascist.

African American man who grew up in the roughest schools in our state be called a fucking white supremacist for talking about issues in the black community.

Gay men be called homophobes.

Lesbians active in the local LGBT+ community, who provided safe housing and care for a FtM after his top surgery, and who forced a local highschool to offer legally required support services for an ASD genderfluid student, called transphobes.


Again, the wolves absolutely fucking exist, have existed for a long time, and there have been plenty of people shouting about them. But there have been even more, louder, people jumping at shadows for just as long.

Doing the equivalent of "Well it's your fault for not heeding our warnings!" is short sighted, ignores lived experiences from a wide variety of people, and most importantly does absolutely nothing for positive change in the current scenario.

You can't just keep going "I told you so!" or "nuh uh!" at people and expect to gain allies.

I get the frustration, but save that energy for the real targets. Attacking our own for not being as prescient as some others is wasted effort and furthers the goals of those in power.


Aknowledging that there is a reasonable explanation for why people don't take these labels seriously doesn't lose you anything. It gives you extra knowledge amd understanding that can be used for more effective forward momentum.

Don't just call Elon a nazi. Anyone who could be convinced by those words alone already has been.

Do something like link this comparison gif:

and approach from a different angle.