>just being in the same place - virtual or physical - with others who you happen to disagree with does not 'taint' the place nor does it make it impossible to interact with most of them except for the looney fringes
Unfortunately, my line of work attracts the Looney fringes. So I withdrew from most mainstream stuff as I saw the above metaphor happen in real time over the span of a decade. Good for you if you are in a more tame profession/hobby (or perhaps, you're a part of it. In that case, condolences).
Do you actually believe that, say, Barack Obama [1] or Pope Leo XIV [2] are nazis? If the answer is "yes" you may have more in common with MAGA looney fringes than you think.
It is the 'democrat' looney fringe, not the MAGA looney fringe which labels everyone a nazi so I suspect that someone who labels the mentioned individuals as such is more likely to be part of the former fringe than of the latter. Had they been part of the latter the label would have been 'commie' or something along those lines.
Ah yes, those scary nazi's who, if the media and many of those influenced by them are to be believed have swamped the streets together with fascists and otherwise-scarily-labelled people.
That's the problem with labelling anyone you don't like a nazi, fascist, racist, homophobe, 'trans'phobe, etc. By the time you're done labelling everyone outside your narrow corridor of allowed opinions with those scary labels you'll find that most people carry at least one of them and as such have gotten used to those terms. Nazi? Well, given that my neighbour - nice guy, helps out when needed, doesn't bother anyone but was called such because he did not want his daughter to share a bathroom with that weird punk in a dress - and my uncle - put a Trump sign in his front yard - and my colleague - drives a truck - seem to be nazi's I guess it is alright to be a nazi nowadays?
I cam only hope that you, being in such a scary profession/hobby that you have felt the need to withdraw from most mainstream stuff do not make the mistake of labelling everyone outside your narrow window of allowed opinions with these scary labels. Or, perhaps, you do, in that case I won't send condolences 'cause you're part of the problem.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nazi_bar
Unfortunately, my line of work attracts the Looney fringes. So I withdrew from most mainstream stuff as I saw the above metaphor happen in real time over the span of a decade. Good for you if you are in a more tame profession/hobby (or perhaps, you're a part of it. In that case, condolences).