There is an old philosophical thought experiment that asks “if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”  The generally accepted technical answer is, no.  As published in Scientific American, “Sound is vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognized as sound only at our nerve centers. The falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibration of the air. If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.”

While not a philosopher in the traditional sense, my mother used this same principle when advising me on how to deal with people who taunted me with unpleasant name calling in elementary school.  “Ignore them, and they will go away.  If you let them know that it bothers you, they will continue.”  And you know what?  She was right.

So, let’s apply that principle on a larger stage.  If 200 – 300 neo-Nazi, white supremacists show up in your town to protest the removal of a statue, maybe it is best just to ignore them.  Don’t give them the satisfaction of a response.  Because when you do, you give them EXACTLY what they are looking for…free publicity and a target against which to fight.

You would think, by now, the radical left in this country would have figured this out.  After all, they gave Donald Trump nearly $5 BILLION in free earned media during the campaign, and then were surprised when he became President.  Had they simply ignored him, would he be in the white house?  Most likely not.

But the violent, radical, anti-fascist left in this country just can’t help themselves.   Here are some recent examples:

In March 2017, political scientist and author Charles Murray was prevented from delivering a speech at Middlebury College due to violence from radical leftist protesters who assaulted college administrators and left them with neck injuries and concussions.  Until that time, I had personally never read anything by Charles Murray, but was curious as to what he could have written that would provoke such a response.  I have since read three of his books, and have found him to be a brilliant and insightful author.  By not simply ignoring him, the violent, radical left expanded Murray’s circle of influence.

A month earlier, radical, left-wing anti-fascists violently protested a planned speech by Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California Berkeley.  For those of you who don’t know who Milo Yiannopoulos is (and I bet most of you don’t, or at least didn’t before February 2017) he is a British, gay, cross-dressing, right-wing political commentator.  Does anyone in their right mind think that a British, gay, cross-dressing, political commentator has any major influence in middle America?  If there was ever a person to completely ignore, this would be the one.  However, the violent, left-wing anti-fascists threw Molotov cocktails in the street and destroyed the campus student union in protest.  This, in turn, brought Yiannopoulos national attention, and in the aftermath of the violence, his book exploded to number 1 on the pre-order list on Amazon.com.  Once again, by not simply ignoring him, they gave him a platform from which to expand his influence.  And he is laughing all the way to the bank.

And this brings us to Charlottesville, Virginia.  If the neo-Nazi, white supremacists had shown up, marched to their statue, had their rally, and been ignored, they would have had no impact or influence.  Maybe, if they had been ignored, Heather Heyer, Jay Cullen, and Berke Bates would still be alive.  Instead, like Trump before them, the KKK has had more free publicity over the last 24 hours than they have had in the last 24 years.  The violent, left-wing anti-fascists have given them a platform from which to spread their message and a target against which to fight.  And they have only themselves to blame.

It is interesting that just 3 days before the Charlottesville protests, the ACLU tweeted the following:

“’Hate speech’ isn’t a legal term, but the law is clear— speech expressing hateful feelings is protected.  If the government gets to decide which speech is hate speech, the powers that be may later feel free to censor any speech they don’t like. Restricting any group or individual’s speech jeopardizes everyone’s rights. The same laws used to silence bigots can be used to silence you.”

So maybe, instead of responding with violence, the better solution is to simply ignore.  Because like the falling tree in the forest, if there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.