21.9.04

WELL: Eric the Unread has a post on responses of German politicians to the election of some far-right representitives. He ends with the question:

"While I'm not in favour of engaging with Nazis, surely if you effectively fail to argue and interact with them, challenging them at every turn, then won't it re-enforce their claim to be representing those who feel alienated from the established political parties?"

I suspect this is on to something; one clearly can't just avoid unsavory political opinions (though goodness knows I try), but neither does one really wish to have to give them the legitimacy open debate affords. I'd go for the current strategy, though it's not sufficient: having debates, explanations, etc of why Nazism is unacceptable as a political doctrine should be a standard part of education. That is, everyone ought to avoid Nazis whenever possible, but they should also know why they're avoiding them.

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