In Part 2 of our conversation, Ben Case and I move from frameworks to consequences. We revisit the 2017 Richard Spencer punch as a concrete case of “little” versus “big” violence, asking what deterrence, backlash, and dignity look like when an act becomes a meme and a cautionary tale at the same time.
Ben draws on his Muay Thai career to talk about fight training as a metaphor for political life: how normalizing adrenaline and pain helps you keep your head during arrests, how to tell hurt from injury, and why the ability to read an adversary in real time matters as much as strategy documents. We sit with responsibility: what communities owe each other when actions bring heat, how mutual aid and legal defense slot into any honest conversation about risk, and why some moments demand acting without guarantees simply to preserve human dignity.
In the closing segment, I unpack the Graham Platner morality play: a black box for the contemplation of masculinity, recklessness, red flags, trauma, accountability, marks of Cain, internet vs. public identities, and the status of trust in the spectacle.
Subscribe on YouTube at @antifascistdad for weekly mini-essays and the Basics series; the first Basics installment is now public.
Join the Patreon for Part 2s, early access, and paywalled bonus briefs.
TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad.
Pre-order the book that this project supports — Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books) — pub date April 26, 2026.
Notes:
Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) w/ Ben Case
Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence
Magic Numbers Are No Shortcut to Strategy (New article from Ben Case)
'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest - ABC News
The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance | ICNC
Sullivan man launches campaign for U.S. Senate | PenBay Pilot
The Political Awakening of the Oyster Farmer Taking on Susan Collins | The New Republic
Who is Graham Platner and why is he everywhere right now? | Maine Public
Can a Maine Oyster Farmer Defeat a Five-Term Republican Senator?
Chapters
- (00:00:10) - Courage in Resistance
- (00:02:12) - Anti-Fascism, Part 2
- (00:06:53) - Richard Spencer Gets Punched
- (00:08:24) - Punishing Richard Spencer: The Consequences
- (00:14:48) - The Most Important Things That Ben Learned From Sport Fighting
- (00:16:53) - Fighting in the Ring
- (00:20:14) - Protesters Disrupt ICE Agents
- (00:22:56) - Fighting Sports for antifascist activists
- (00:28:13) - On human dignity
- (00:28:42) - The Culture of Contempt
- (00:33:18) - Meet the Maine Democrat Running for Congress on a Left Wing
- (00:44:19) - The Platner Spectacle
- (00:46:21) - The Social Brain
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