My friend Si told me about some recent interactions with a BNP supporter on a local networking and events site here in Cambridge, We’re All Neighbours. Most of the regulars of the site were being quite tolerant and reasonable, and engaged him in discussion. Si said that this was problem, as reasoned debate gave credence to the point of view, and gave them a platform to express themselves. As ultimately the BNP is a group of racist pricks with little tolerance for other cultures, giving them a platform on a community site might not be the best thing to do. Anyway, everyone got a little upset, and Si ridiculed the BNP member as compensating for his teeny tiny member.
Anyway this got me thinking, what’s the best way to deal with situations where rational arguments don’t work? If you are a touchy-feely everyone-deserves-to-be-heard type of person, do you have to keep respectful and patient? Is it perhaps better to ridicule those that engage in hate speech? I mean, you aren’t going to convince them that their point of view is blinkered, simple and nasty, so you might as well make them look silly and sweaty. Is it ok to skip about lightly, poking fun, while they get angrier and angrier?
Ah, so here is the point of synchronicity. A friend of mine just posted this article on her Facebook wall about a 2007 KKK march in Knoxville Tennessee that was disrupted by CLOWNS.
“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.
“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more, “White flowers?” the clowns cheers and threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.
“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message, “ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled “Tight Shower!” and held a solar shower in the air and all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.
At this point several of the Nazi’s and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have a heart attack. Their beady eyes bulged, and the veins in their tiny narrow foreheads beat in rage. One last time they screamed “White Power!”
The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh…” the women clowns said. “Now we understand…”, “WIFE POWER!” they lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”
I liked this very much. Clowning for good.