Today I made a friend. I won’t mention his name, as I don’t suspect he would like to be named. His name is neither here, nor there. What is important is the reconciliation that took place between us…
A year ago a man who has now become one of the most infamous faces of American Fascism, Christopher Cantwell, made a threat to “stomp” me because of a hat I had on, which read “Make Racists Afraid Again.”
In my arrogance, I decided to make a public example out of Christopher. I accepted his offer of violence, and told him that we could have a charity bout, where tickets would be sold and money donated to feeding low income members of the community. In truth, I knew he would never accept me accepting the implied challenge. I made two videos calling him out, then calling him out again. The purpose, sadly, was not to try to educate him, but to humiliate him.
I believed I was right in doing this, but it was not the way.
Christopher Cantwell hates me because I am Jewish, because I am anti-racist and anti-fascist, and also because he is searching for identity and tribal belonging. I watched him go from being mocked on the Colbert Report years ago as “The Enforcer” to witnessing him practically beg to be accepted as a Hammerskin Neo-Nazi.
I made the mistake of accepting Chris’s invitation of hatred and violence. As a martial artist and Taoist, I knew violence should only be used as an absolute last resort, in defense. But I believed since the ideology he was propagating was so evil, he was a lost cause. Perhaps I even wanted to believe that because it was easier than putting in the work to try to change his heart.
READ MORE >> Letter To Inmate Christopher Cantwell
The former owner of this site wanted to believe that the Chris Cantwell who he had presented himself as for years, was the real Christopher Cantwell. In private and public settings, I was learning that Christopher was morphing from Libertarian to overt fascist. Rising to Cantwell’s defense, this site was registered to compile more or less anything negative any enemy I had made from my activism had to say. Truths were omitted, lies, half-truths and disinformation were passed on to the owner, and they were presented as fact.
After hours of discussion with myself and my supporters, hearing the rest of the story, and in some cases, the real story heard for the first time, the owner of the site and I reconciled. We looked at the conflict from each other’s perspectives and came to meet on common ground.
While we may never see eye-to-eye on all things, we do see how each of us sees through our own eyes.
Barukh Ha’Shem. Al-hamdulillah. This is the Tao.