Gamers love killing Nazis in games like Wolfenstein and Call of Duty, but most of us never thought we’d wind up fighting them for real. In a recent facebook post, a friend of mine wrote: “I grew up with Nazis being two dimensional movie and video game villains, goddamn it, and that’s where we were supposed to leave them. But 2016 wants to try and tell me we have to listen to folks who literally cite Nazi propaganda and terminology in their hateful, stupid rhetoric? No thank you.” No thank you is right. But what can we do about it? How do we fight back? Punching them in the head seems to be in vogue right now, but, let’s face it, that’s not for everyone. The skills we honed in years of first-person shooters don’t really translate.
So what do we do? We get really active and organized on the local level to reform our electoral system. Call your state-level legislators. Take over the media. Write to editors. Self-publish articles, and propagate the work of journalists who speak the truth at a time when truth is in such short supply. But, most importantly, we must vigorously work to create a culture in which hatred cannot take hold. This is something everyone can do, regardless of age, ability, or nationality, and if we all work together, even the smallest actions can have a tremendous effect.
There are several ways we can go about creating a hate-free culture. I’m going to focus on three: be visible, connect, and don’t compromise.
