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Charlottesville

Should We Punch Nazis?

Let me start off by getting this out of the way:

I’m a liberal, an activist and a pacifist
I’m also Jewish
However, I admit that I don’t know the correct answer to “Should we punch neo-Nazis?”
Therefore, this essay will have more questions than answers
And it’s not about the ethics of punching a neo-Nazi, or if a neo-Nazi deserves to be punched or not (they do), but rather a study on whether or not punching them is the best method to bring about positive change
P.S. I hate neo-Nazis

Inlight of the events in Charlottesville, I’ve seen a large uptick in support of punching neo-Nazis.

This support is coming from thoughtful, intelligent thinkers I respect on the left and it’s got me questioning whether or not we’ve arrived at violence being the only way to achieve peace.

But as a pacifist, writing the above sentence makes me cringe; it feels like the ultimate oxymoron.

How can violence be the answer to peace?

We hold up our non-violent leaders — Martin (more…)

August 16, 2017 by hipstercrite

Hipstercrite Life

Please Remember: Love Will Outnumber Hate

Words have escaped me lately.

This is, in part, due to the rapid fire of unfortunate, heartbreaking, terrifying events that have plagued America recently. Like many others, my brain is in a frenzied state and is having difficulty keeping up; every day is a fight not to go down a path of self-preservation numbness to what is going on. I know that inaction is not the answer, but damn, some days it just feels so unbearably hopeless.

The other reason words have trickled out of my brain, through my ears and down to the ground is because I’m tired of being told how I’m supposed to think and feel by the online masses in times of turmoil. As a writer on the web, I do not want to pretend I’m an expert on individual emotional reaction to catastrophe; I will not tell you how you’re supposed to act right now.

But with that being said, there is one thing I want to share in hopes of providing comfort, and as a reader, please feel free to take it or leave it.

During these times when I feel (more…)

August 14, 2017 by hipstercrite

Hipstercrite Life

The Winter of Wanderlust

During the holidays, we drove through West Texas and New Mexico. A trip I’ve done before and a journey I never tire of.

It had all the makings of a romantic anecdote.

Four of us were nestled in the body off an all-terrain truck. We listened to country music from the 1950s. We marveled at the thousands of wind turbines, the out-of-commission gas stations, the dead deer and the pink skyline. I drifted in and out of sleep comforted by the fact that I had slipped back into time.

Driving through West Texas and New Mexico makes you feel like you’re cool as shit. That you’re the only person brave enough to step foot into this frontier. For the duration of the drive, you entertain moving to a town called Milagro or Truth or Consequences and you know that you could be happy there. You’d grow your hair long, make art out of found desert objects and create a shrine to Georgia O’Keefe.

As we made our way into Santa Fe, I took note of the sand colored pueblo-style houses with splashes of (more…)

January 16, 2012 by hipstercrite