Whoever they are, whatever their motivation, these punks deserve only scorn, shunning and repudiation. Any association with swastika flags and sieg heil salutes — whether you’re a genuine believer or you’re posing as a believer for a paycheck or merely as political schtick — merits nothing but utter condemnation.

In this, the outrage from the political portside may be opportunistic, but it is not misplaced.

Kathy Turner, spokesperson for the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida in Maitland, in a statement said the organization “strongly condemns all forms of antisemitism, hate speech and symbols, and is especially disturbed by yet another presence of Neo-Nazis in Central Florida outside of Walt Disney World.”

No argument here. Just as they were in 1942, Americans should remain united against Nazism. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office certainly was not amused, declaring in an unsigned statement: The agency “deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate.”

“And while what these groups do is revolting and condemned in the strongest way by the Sheriff and the Sheriff’s Office, they did not on Saturday, to our knowledge, commit a criminal act. They are looking for attention, and specifically media attention.”

So, mission accomplished.

Where the episode begins to fail the sniff test is with the demonstrators’ inclusion of Ron-DeSantis-for-president banners. Like Jussie Smollett claiming he was mugged by Magadonians in downtown Chicago, the linking of Florida’s governor with historic thuggery is a wee bit too convenient.

Absent from the coverage, as nearly as Google and I can sort it, are interviews with members of the deranged little mob. We have drive-by footage of the manic action from amateur videographers (who, for failing to turn their smartphones to capture horizontal images, also deserve condemnation), footage that was consumed voraciously on social media as well as being widely distributed by professional media.

But even though the show lasted the better part of two hours, not a single local journalist — nay, not even a single local citizen media hero — greeted even one of the cast members with a live microphone and camera.

A 90-second chat would have been useful. A simple, unthreatening exchange of pleasantries. Hey, whatcha got going on here today? How’d you pick this location? What are your major complaints? Does your group have a name? Y’all apparently are fans of Ron DeSantis. Why? 

Instead, at the threshold of the House of the Mouse, the biggest tourist attraction in the entire known world, we get zip-a-dee-doo-dah. How does that happen? Are weekend news staffs so strained they can’t cover actual news? Has curiosity died in America?

Or was this one of those fits-our-thinking stories that was too good to check out? We are not the only ones to notice.

Fair question: ANY possibility of a “false flag” operation? ANY? Because the Disney/DeSantis dispute could get that ugly. https://t.co/Uy66DK62cW

— Michele Tafoya (@Michele_Tafoya) June 12, 2023

Failure to verify left the canvas blank for DeSantis’ opponents to spatter with insinuation, such as this from Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who was among the first to tweet the video.

“It’s absolutely disgusting to see what has become a common presence of Nazis in Florida, and even more disturbing when they are holding signs and flags that signal support for people like Gov. DeSantis,” Eskamani said in a statement. “Every person, regardless of political ideology, should condemn this.”

The message is plain: This means you, Gov. DeSantis. Silence is violence, and all that. Never mind that crazies can trot themselves out eight days a week in numbers that couldn’t make up a softball game; if they’re chanting fascist epithets, progressives are going to demand DeSantis denunciations.

Never mind that in May, while visiting Jerusalem, DeSantis signed one of the nation’s most far-reaching antisemitism laws. HB 269 includes criminalizing littering private property with antisemitic propaganda; harassing or intimidating another person for wearing or displaying religious or ethnic items; displaying or projecting an image on someone else’s property without permission; and making other credible threats.

In 2019, DeSantis signed the Anti-Semitism Protections Bill, which added religion as a protected class for purposes of discrimination. 

So DeSantis doesn’t rush to the nearest gaggle to freshly repudiate that which he already has publicly deplored. Is that unacceptable? Yes, suggests USA Today’s David Oliver, who gives like-minded readers the money quote.

“Determining where to draw the line between allowing free speech and prohibiting hate speech can be very challenging,” says Brad Fulton, associate professor of management and social policy at Indiana University – Bloomington. “Less challenging, however, is for political leaders to condemn particular speech. By not responding, Gov. DeSantis is giving tacit consent to this activity and he is emboldening the activists.”

Really? If that’s in fact how it works, what are we to conclude about certain prominent politicians who not only supported the fringe activities, but boosted a Minnesota fund that raised bail for arsonists and looters in 2020’s — *ahem* — Summer of Love?

Meanwhile, the thinking in this space is Florida Republican Vice Chairman Evan Power has it precisely right:

There is no reason anyone needs to comment each time a crazy group does something. It’s pretty amazing to me why this becomes an issue (and why some people give these people more attention than they deserve) https://t.co/sz4kojqIDl

— Evan Power (@EvanPower) June 10, 2023