Patri Friedman

It's not "the Right" recruiting that's an issue, it's the Nazis recruiting. Which is pretty explicitly what the alt-Right is, with their conventions straight-arm shouting "Heil Trump" and marches alongside Nazi flags.

Just the flag alone shows what an absurd criticism this is. For a tribe whose mildest extremists can wear a Communist flag to criticize a tribe whose tiny fraction of ultra-extremists wear a Nazi flag is, from an objective evaluation of evil, complete hypocrisy.

Also, I reject the notion that communist flags and Nazi flags are comparably evil symbols. Yes, communism seems inevitably to go Very Badly, but its ideals at least *sound* noble. There is. no. noble. ideal. behind Nazism or the Klan: they're evil all the way down.

Sorry, but this is a false and content-free template fill: "I reject the notion that [evil symbol ingroup uses] and [evil symbol outgroup uses] are comparably evil. Yes, each was used by mass murderers, but [our mass murderers] had noble ideals which [their mass murders] didn't"

Patri. You are talking about Nazis. *Nazis*. Please tell me the "noble ideals" associated with the Nazi cause that you consider it acceptable for someone today to admire. I recognize that your "template" is a nasty and pernicious pattern. But you are defending *Nazis*.

Sorry, but when did I defend Nazis? I am looking back at the text of our exchange and not seeing anything that defends Nazis. I merely pointed out that "association with murderous hateful groups" is something done by both left and right (hence why both horrify me).

Everything you're saying is in defense of the position that Nazis are no worse than any other extreme-ish political faction. That a man waving a torch and shouting "Jew shall not replace us!" is somehow equivalent to a painfully naive teenager wearing a Che shirt.

That naive teenager can at least claim that she's an admirer of Guevara's utopian prose and ideals even though she deplores his actions. She may be a fool, but she's motivated by good. There is nothing redeeming, nothing admirable in Nazism: it is evil in BOTH action and motive.