The Parable of the Nazi Bar
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The Parable of the Nazi Bar states, "If Nazis frequent your bar, and you don't kick them out, more Nazis will come, the rest of your clientele leaves, and your bar will become a Nazi Bar."
References[edit]
Origin
In 2020, Twitter user related an anecdote[1] he experienced while at The Side Bar in Baltimore. In the thread, he discusses how, while drinking a beer, another customer sat next to him before being immediately ejected from the bar by the bartender. When he asked the bartender what happened, the bartender explained that the other customer was a skinhead and that if they're not kicked out right away, Nazi/Skinhead/White Nationalist presence grows.
"I was at a shitty crustpunk bar once getting an after-work beer. One of those shitholes where the bartenders clearly hate you. So the bartender and I were ignoring one another when someone sits next to me and he immediately says, "no. get out."
And the dude next to me says, "hey i'm not doing anything, i'm a paying customer." and the bartender reaches under the counter for a bat or something and says, "out. now." and the dude leaves, kind of yelling. And he was dressed in a punk uniform, I noticed
Anyway, I asked what that was about and the bartender was like, "you didn't see his vest but it was all nazi shit. Iron crosses and stuff. You get to recognize them."
And i was like, ohok and he continues.
"you have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in and it's always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don't want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too.
And then THEY bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh shit, this is a Nazi bar now. And it's too late because they're entrenched and if you try to kick them out, they cause a PROBLEM. So you have to shut them down.
And i was like, 'oh damn.' and he said "yeah, you have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people."
And then he went back to ignoring me. But I haven't forgotten that at all."
Discussion
The thread has been used multiple times since its creation to illustrate problems with content moderation[2], the infiltration tactics of white nationalists[3], dogwhistles in various subcultures and the effective resistance of the punk rock movement toward unwelcome elements[4].
See also
Journalists[5] have framed the Parable of the Nazi Bar as a modern day example of Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance, which states that "if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant."
Members of the Punk subculture commonly referencethe song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" by The Dead Kennedys when discussing the Parable.
This article "The Parable of the Nazi Bar" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:The Parable of the Nazi Bar. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ https://www.boredpanda.com/bar-bartender-nazi-punk-iamragesparkle/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic an anecdote
- ↑ "Substack CEO Chris Best Doesn't Realize He's Just Become the Nazi Bar". 14 April 2023.
- ↑ "Warhammer 40K Op-Ed: Lets Talk About the Community's Nazi Player Problem". 12 November 2021.
- ↑ "An oral history of actual punks punching actual Nazis in the face". The A.V. Club. 18 January 2018.
- ↑ "Bartender explains why he swiftly kicks out Nazis even if they're 'not bothering anyone' - Upworthy".
