Wanna know what happened during the pandemic? All the anti-vaccine and anti-mask idiots came out to play. Most people stayed silent. Didn't want to get involved. Went on their days understandably stressed, though also very aware all the wrong around them.
This is no different. We are all so socially programmed to follow norms that we don't want to upset anyone. We don't want to raise our voices in public. Worried we may get embarrassed. Concerned that we are somehow in the wrong. Terrified that something will be taken from us.
Yet here we are in our passiveness, consistently losing ground to actual imbeciles, racists, and malicious actors. WE allow this to happen. Stand up to them or let their word spread unopposed and allow them to do what they want. Freedom of speech works both ways. So stand up and speak out.
The problem is that a lot of these lunatics are armed, either openly or concealed carry. Your average person isn't going to be willing to take a gamble with their life in order to confront these assholes, they're just gonna try and hurry on their way. The actual people who should be confronting Nazis are cops, but unfortunately the venn diagram of police and fascist supporters is a fucking circle.
Only if the right completely drops its mask and fully, and publicly embraces the swastika. and I doubt Trump wants to stand on stage infront of a Camera and wax poetic about the "beautiful" swastika.
This "doubting" needs to stop. We're well past the point where we need to assume malicious behavior, even outstanding and evil behavior. If you are determined to doubt anything, doubt that whatever lengths they are currently willing to go will stop there if they don't get their way.
Especially the violence is always bad, violence never solves anything, just ignore bullies, avoid, do not confront, do not escalate attitude that has been being pushed for decades.
This is the result of good people not being willing to stand up for themselves in hostile, aggressive, and violent ways. Give up violence as a tool only used by the bad guys or by authorized individuals, then the bad guys will, once they have infiltrated and taken control for the organizations allowed to do violence, be able to use it with impunity everywhere.
Long ago, if you said or did things that are abhorrent to most decent people (as defined by the morals of the day at least) you're likely to get a fist in your face. Today, although these things are abhorrent to most people, no one is willing to just punch someone for most things.
Remember when Buzz Aldrin just punched the guy accusing him of participating in the moon landing conspiracy? If 20-30% of decent people were willing to respond like that to Nazis, racists, homophobes, transphobia, and other abhorrent groups, they wouldn't be bringing these things up in public.
But decades of this anti-violent attitude have resulted in a population who is largely decent but unwilling to act to preserve that decency.