The right lionized Charlie Kirk because he was confrontational– not because he was correct, smart, kind, or convincing. His entire “doing politics the right way” was being ready to confront anyone to his left with maximum indignation and a disgust.
I think the left also rewards this behavior.
Which is to say that as a culture we’re surrounded by this kind of rhetorical jousting. This performative, combative form of conversation is not just the norm, it’s what is rewarded and valued.
I confront people all the time. No one would say that I am not “heated” as a general disposition– I blame my New York, Jewish cultural upbringing and just being an impatient prick in general. I absolutely see the logic in and am sometimes convinced by arguments that roughly end in “sometimes you have to punch the Nazis”.
But I think the internet is full of people who have convinced themselves they’re walking through the world punching Nazis when they’re just being jerks.
I say this next part gently and with a lot less certainty.
I also think there are punch of times where people feel like they’re being persecuted by Nazis on the internet when they’re just being confronted by jerks. What do I mean by that? I wouldn’t go as far as to say people are being “soft” – but I think that there is something to the idea that we have become very uncomfortable with being uncomfortable. I think it’s because the level of accessibility communication technology permits is unnatural. We’re so reachable by so many people for so much of the time that the sheer volume of microaggressions we can experience has gone through the roof. Our tolerance floor, I think, has dropped because we’re being “tested” all the time.
People talk about filter bubbles online as though prior to being online we didn’t have significantly higher walls and greater isolation within a community of our choosing.
So not only are we rewarding being a jerk, we’re all so on edge that it feels like everyone is being a Nazi even when they’re just being a jerk.
And it’s even worse than that, because we literally live in a time where there are people who run our (US) government with a monopoly on violent force who are actual fascist inheritors of Nazism.
There’s no grand conclusion here except maybe “go touch grass”, as the kids say.