Pugilistic

I have never punched anyone. I'm happy with that statement, and don't foresee myself punching anyone. I doubt I'd be much good at punching anyway, with zero experience and a build much better suited to playing a cello or working with a pipettor in the lab. 

There is, though, this voice in the back of my head, telling me that if I ever did punch someone, however unlikely, it sure seems like punching a nazi would be the way to go. 

Just, as a mental exercise, finish the following sentence a bunch of ways:

A person wearing a mask was caught on camera punching a  ______. 

Fill that in with "child" and you're immediately describing a horrible person. 

Fill it in with "muslim woman in a hijab" and it sounds like a pretty well-defined hate crime. 

Fill it in with "spouse" and that tells a difficult story, probably also of a horrible person. 

Fill it in with "rapist" and now what is it? Vengeance? Justice? Still horrible?

Fill it in with "nazi", though, and are we talking about a masked vigilante? a hero? still a horrible person? A patriot? 

Punching a nazi sounds to me like punching a bad guy. I just have a hard time getting emotionally disturbed by the fact that a nazi gets punched. Is there a cutoff somewhere shy of nazi that makes me feel like maybe its okay for a person to be punched?

Punching a white supremacist? 

Punching a Fascist?

Punching a misogynist?

Punching a member of the alt-right? See - that feels different to me now. The importance of labels. 

Punching an ultraconservative? Now this sounds like a political distinction, and not a reason to punch someone. 

There is another litmus test, though, and it makes me feel like a bad little monkey thats playing games with my lizard-brain:

Who would Jesus punch? 

I just think the answer here is obviously nobody. Even when he was furiously flipping tables in front of the temple, I don't remember anything about fists flying.

So there it is. Punching is wrong, even if its a nazi. That's my final answer. 

(but maybe it's less wrong?)