A place for violence

[Timsup2nothin]

so Racist Dad isn't the real bad guy here, it's Corporate America? You really do think you're Frank Castle!* Or perhaps just trying to rationalize some past bad behavior.

*aka The Punisher

I don't think he's saying that Racist Dad isn't the bad guy, rather explaining that the UCLP has no real way to get out of the situation without being abused.

Thanks Akka. I thought for a minute there i was going to have to repeat myself.

If people want to say "I'd just walk away because I'm a pacifist," or "I'm not much of a fighter" I have no argument. If they try to hide behind "the UCLP will be fine so no problem" I have argued with them.

 

[Old Hippy]

Interesting question this raised that no one has addressed so far...

Is the blatant use of a racial slur, with the apparent understanding that you will accept such use due to your shared skin color, not call for at least the kind of "polite rebuke" that Christos is advocating for "violence or excessive aggression"? Are we really people who will just "let that go" since it wasn't directed at ourselves?

as you previously ruled out the ' please sir, don't be a dick' response you can only stand by and see who throws the first punch, which might mean your defending the racist dad against an aggressive rent a cop, which still says being violent is an OK response.

that to me seems to imply that using violence not just letting something go can be the appropriate response. Which further complicates the issue that violence can be used for resolving non violent situations(at this stage) and should be planned for (something I would do) but if violence is considered a suitable response to anger/racism by someone, dose that not lead to reinforcing behaviour where people beat their spouse as a appropriate response, cause its OK for men to be violent.

no answer from me on the OP though it raises some interesting questions

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I don't recall ruling that out. In fact, I think that's a fine response if it is given immediately. I may have questioned the usefulness of it when it was combined with "wait and see what happens."

 

[Old Hippy]

I don't recall ruling that out. In fact, I think that's a fine response if it is given immediately. I may have questioned the usefulness of it when it was combined with "wait and see what happens."

my bad..
I don't see how you could question its usefulness with wait and see what happens as not waiting requires implicating an immediate plan of action anything else is wait and see what happens

 

[Timsup2nothin]

my bad..
I don't see how you could question its usefulness with wait and see what happens as not waiting requires implicating an immediate plan of action anything else is wait and see what happens

I sort of questioned the implication of "if the punches start I'll take action" in the same response with "the action I would take is a polite request to be nice." It seemed to me that once the punches are being exchanged it's a bit late for that.

As I said, as long as it's a basically immediate action that sort of polite intervention seems very reasonable. Whether it would be my personal approach or not would have to be determined by where I place the odds of the guy being genuinely willing to go physical. If someone seems like a high probability to go physical I do have a strong self-preservation streak that leads me to go first.

 

[Old Hippy]

I sort of questioned the implication of "if the punches start I'll take action" in the same response with "the action I would take is a polite request to be nice." It seemed to me that once the punches are being exchanged it's a bit late for that.

As I said, as long as it's a basically immediate action that sort of polite intervention seems very reasonable. Whether it would be my personal approach or not would have to be determined by where I place the odds of the guy being genuinely willing to go physical. If someone seems like a high probability to go physical I do have a strong self-preservation streak that leads me to go first.

me too, if I'm shopping chances are that I'm wearing steel cap boots and have a hard hat on coming home from work, so saying ,be nice please, has overtones
going first still raises the issue of violence is a suitable response to angry verbal actions which I see as a bad way for people to act in general, that's why the angry dad is a problem to begin with now we have added the bystander to that category escalating the situation to a more probably outcome of violence.
are you taking into account that you would likely not be the first casualty if violence did break out in your scenario? Which still leaves ask the guy to 'behave with civility' and wait and see to be working well together without being the one to start a brawl