you don’t have to talk so loud
Being against punitive justice doesn’t mean I believe that people should be allowed to do harmful things unchecked, or that I’m against the use of force. If you see a Nazi on the street yelling Nazi shit, stop him. Punching him in the face is an acceptable way to stop him. Notice that this is about stopping an action, not a thought.
If you continue to beat him after he stops, that would be punitive. I think we can all agree that beating a man to death in broad daylight, even for saying reprehensible shit, is not something that can be allowed.
I think the key thing here is “too far gone”. Do you have any examples, experiences, etc that you’re drawing from with that opinion? Willing to be wrong, but I doubt it, I think you’re operating purely on vibes there. Let me give you a real world example:
I was born and raised in the deep south which, because I am white, means that my family, community, etc was (and is) deeply racist. As children, we were calling each other the n word with a hard r as an insult. I really cannot stress enough just how fucking racist the environment I grew up in was, unlearning that has been and will be the work of a lifetime.
My uncle, the poor dumb bastard, had a daughter. She turned out to be a lesbian. Given that my family was also deeply homophobic, this was the first time he received an incentive to interrogate his bigotry. I won’t tell you that he’s not homophobic, but I’ve seen him with a rainbow painted on his face so. Big improvement, yeah?
His daughter fostered and then adopted a little black girl, you see where this is going. She’s his favorite person in the world, I think, and has been since she was a baby. I won’t tell you that he’s not racist, but I’ve seen him drive around on a golf cart with her screaming and laughing in his lap.
I haven’t heard him say a slur in about ten years. I think we can all agree that this is not a perfect feel-good story, but he’s doing better.
There’s a lot more I could tell you to contextualize him, but I’ve told you all of this so I could paint a picture of “a racist” to mirror your question about “a nazi”. Can you see how dehumanization cuts both ways?
You’d have probably thought he was too far gone, if you’d heard him talk 20 years ago. I’ve seen enough to know better.
It’s always about incentives. People change when you give them a reason to. If punishment worked, prisons would be empty. They are full.