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Sovietswiss wrote:

And yeah we hate nazis

I have to confess: I'm not a huge fan of that part of our identity. And Sovietswiss, the following rant is not your fault.

(1) It isn't that I agree with Nazis. I don't. They're wrong. But I don't like the idea of any community allowing itself to tell one of its members, "You're not allowed to believe that." It makes no difference how wrong the belief is. If you can't convince someone to change their own mind, you're pretty much obliged to let them have their beliefs. If someone's behavior violates community rules, that's one thing. Motives and beliefs, though... Attempting to police those is a pipe dream and a sure road to bad places.

(2) The message atop the RMB only says we "don't like" Nazis, not that we hate them. I hope none of us truly hates anyone. Hate is like one of Voldemort's horcruxes. It's a canker to the soul, and never hurts anyone more than the person who holds it. "Don't like" is better than "hate," I suppose, but it's a slippery slope, and I've long been a little discomforted by that declaration. I hope for the sake of you, the person reading this, that you don't hate anyone. Ever. Not even Adolf Hitler himself (recognize him for the evil monster he was and vow never to be anything like him, of course, but then recognize that hatred would be a big part of what made him who he was, so in your effort not to be like him you should choose not to hate anyone). Choosing to "only hate evil people" isn't good enough. WHO one hates or WHY one hates is not the point. The only relevant thing is THAT one hates.

(3) Influence goes two ways. Every person we shut out of our lives, for whatever reason, but notably those whose ideas we don't like, is also being denied our influence. What I mean by that is, yeah, it's a relief when someone whose ideas turn your stomach shuts up, but if you shut them out entirely you're probably ensuring that they won't hear your ideas. Instead, they'll find others with their ideas and the resulting echo chamber will very likely result in expansion of the ideas. Meanwhile, the echo chamber formed by shutting those people out does the same thing on your side and the divide gets worse.

*steps down from soap box*