'When I Look at You, I Don't Think Master Race!' Yes, I Told Neo-Nazis That to Their Faces
In my experience, bullies hate it when someone dares to stand up to them. That's why I decided to confront members of the Goyim Defense League -- with facts.
In these early posts on Hate Comes to Main Street, I will share how this journey began for me. I hope you will find this publication to be part of an important conversation and will spread the word!
Growing up in a fundamentalist household in rural Middle Tennessee, as a child, I was enthralled by the thought-provoking suggestion of a hymn that called upon worshippers to place themselves at the foot of the cross.
“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”
As I grew older and expanded my horizons, that sort of intellectual imagination became a normal part of my attempt to wrestle with the past.
What if I had been present at various climactic moments in history? What role would I have played? Which side would I have chosen?
Where would I have stood silently as the Nazi thugs first began taking to the streets to bully anyone who dared to disagree with them?
How would I have reacted to the genocide of the Jews or the murders of millions of other innocents?
Would I have been one of the millions of Germans who chose to remain silent?
Perhaps that is why I took it personally when members of the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League descended upon Nashville for about 10 days in July 2024, hoping to create viral video content with their confrontations on the city’s streets.
Waving swastika flags over Nashville’s downtown entertainment district and yelling their vile propaganda—”Hitler was right!”—the neo-Nazis attempted to recruit followers, while insulting who dared to disagree. GDL leader Jon Minadeo berated a lesbian mom, reducing her young daughter to tears.
Later, on a downtown street, the neo-Nazis swarmed an employee of a downtown bar, with Minadeo grabbing him from behind and attempting to claw his eyes while other GDL members punched him. The night before, they had attacked a young Jewish man in a downtown parking lot.
They had staged a vulgar protest outside Nashville’s West End Synagogue, later attempting to disrupt a meeting of the city’s Metro Council.
But, in my experience, bullies hate it when someone dares to stand up to them.
So, one day, when I heard they were staging outside Nashville’s City Hall, I decided to confront them with facts:
They claimed to be standing against pedophiles, yet I had discovered that one of their own members was a convicted pedophile.
They tried to convince people that “every single aspect of the Biden administration is Jewish,” ignoring clear evidence about members of the president’s Cabinet who were clearly NOT Jewish.
And they made similar claims about federal health officials and pharmaceutical leaders involved in the federal response to COVID-19, glossing over the reality that the effort was headed by two Catholics.
You can watch the encounter below:
What did I learn from this experience?
Hate is almost always built on a foundation of lies, and lies must be confronted.
As I engaged the GDL members, I found myself experiencing on overwhelming sense of sadness. “This is so pathetic!” I thought.
Here were a bunch of losers—and I think I can say that objectively— who had completely lost their way.
Perhaps they are driven by economic insecurity, perhaps by childhood trauma, perhaps by mental illness.
Rather than accepting blame for their own shortcomings, they felt compelled to find a scapegoat — whether it’s Jews, African-Americans, members of the LGBTQ community, or anyone else who does not look and think like them.
Which is what led me to finally be brutally honest with them: “When I look at you, I don’t think ‘master race.’”
It may have been my best comeback ever.
It was also the truth.
What do you think?