i should like to first clarify the intended purpose of this letter dear fellows of the left it is of public knowledge that liberals and indeed liberalism condemns and equates all forms of political violence i have nothing against pacifism and indeed barring unique bizarre circumstances i view it as the ideal method of transforming society even under revolutionary conditions however the equation of all political violence as the same is deeply flawed it is also alarming and dare i say criminal under our current circumstances to hold this position we are as liberals as anarchists as socialists as communists as social democrats as feminists as left libertarians as marxists all besieged and must think critically about this notion to be clear i am not advocating some horrible act of purges or some silly orwellian notion of thought policing but i am going to discuss violence and the pragmatism thereof in a frank and open manner if this is upsetting please look away before we address the topic at hand we must define a term fascist is a widely abused and often misunderstood word many a writer has taken a crack at defining it ranging from its founder giovanni gentile to revolutionary communist leon trotsky its own ideological inconsistency on the world stage complicates this further but it is not so difficult to pin down rather it can be condensed into a simple acronym f a r n far right referring to its political position authoritarian referring to its most noted trait reactionary referring to its attitude on social issues and nationalism referring to its parent ideology fascism stands in defiance of democracy which it sees as being obsolete it stands in defiance of the individual viewing them as weak and easily broken it stands in defiance of anarchism and communism viewing them as a threat to the state the only apparatus to the fascist which unites the masses like the nationalism it comes from fascism imagines a prelapsarian view of its country visions of past glory which are either exaggerated or outright mythical it seeks to make the nation great again through rebirth specifically by enacting sexist racist lgbtq phobic and totalitarian policies on the subject of political violence one must ask themselves when is it acceptable and across the board one comes to three conclusions either during a war to overthrow a dictator or to prevent the loss of life the point of all acceptable political violence is to prevent the loss of life if you see the ku klux klan attempt to lynch a black man attacking them is justified as a means of defending that person from being harmed or killed if you see a nazi attacking a jew you have an imperative to attack that nazi to protect someone s life herein lies the trouble these groups are by default perpetrators and more importantly propagandists of violence to ignore them and to allow them free reign is the problem itself if your concern is that a fascist is undeserving of violence being enacted upon them prior to them enacting violence unto another you are now willing to endanger another person s life for your pacifism when a white supremacist walks into a church and shoots nine people when a south korean woman is attacked by men shouting white power or the countless other acts of racist violence across the united states are perpetrated some form of preventative measure could have and should have been taken fascists of all forms are not rational people they believe quite firmly that racial superiority is a biological fact they believe that the holocaust is either exaggerated or a complete myth they believe that the jewish population is in control of the media it is a waste of effort to reach them with reason when they have organized they will commit acts of violence based upon these irrational beliefs but they cannot organize or feel comfortable enough to commit this violence if they feel unsafe about doing so but of course the immediate response to all this is what about free speech ordinarily this is sound but when discussing fascism it is a flawed argument first and foremost most of the world has laws against such kinds of speech recognizing it as threatening and discriminatory but more importantly one must ask why is free speech is important to that i answer human beings are capable of extraordinary feats and ingenuity and it is only in the context of freedom for all that this ingenuity wealth of ideas can flourish fascists run counter to both of these things they are liars by trade their own ideology is internally inconsistent and when in power they are a direct threat to human freedoms on the most basic scale free speech is wasted on if not inapplicable to fascism but yet surely violence is a poor solution surely the assault upon a fascist will only allow them to martyr themselves to this i say the following fascism sympathy is racism plain and simple to feel sympathy for a fascist is to feel sympathy for white supremacy to feel sympathy for a fascist is to feel sympathy for holocaust denial moreover this assertion is pretty deeply flawed the battle of cable street helped crush british fascism and hitler himself admitted that if direct action had been taken the nazis would never have risen to power not to mention there is many a story of kids in the hardcore punk scene during the 70s and 80s driving nazis off with force and not kind words violence will not martyr them and anyone who would buy into their crocodile tears was already sympathetic to their ideas to begin with this is not to say violence is the only way of dealing with fascism in order to better address fascism real educational methods must be taken to prevent it s growth in the first place democracy human rights and basic liberty run counter to fascism and promoting their growth explaining their need is what stops this before it becomes necessary to take direct action fascism as a political ideology is a culmination of defective and damaging ideas against which decisive and direct action must be taken violence is not an ideal nor is it a desirable action whilst conflict is inevitable as history progresses we can agree that all preventable violence is wrong however for many people that qualifier is the difference between their safety and harm liberals of the world all allies of the marginalized i call on you understand your complacence and apologism is complicity in reactionary violence cease your conflicts with anti fascism unless you wish to be agents of fascism yourselves 2