Same here. I make no apology for ridiculing anybody who tries to foist their own stupidity onto me.

@anglophone

Words don't hurt me, stones, guns and guinea pig jabs can.

You show my point exactly, your response could have said the same thing showing a little respect and empathy, instead you chose to go straight for the jugular and try to shut down all discussion.

@glennlab Calls for the gassing of Jews and the enslavement of people of other racial heritage, among other things, is by definition disrespectful of the people being targeted. I go straight to the position of contempt in such cases.

@glennlab How would a response showing respect and empathy to the racists go exactly, and in what world would showing respect and empathy to someone who wants to murder people for arbitrary reasons not make you look like a racist yourself?

@JeffMurray, you seem to enjoy throwing bombs rather than engaging in social intercourse, You first response to me was to say Bullshit, your second was to flip me off. I never said we shouldn't object to other people, I said we should nolt be objectionable, something you have no idea how to do.

@glennlab I wasn't flipping you off.
And I asked how to not be objectionable in a situation like that because I agree, I have no idea how to do that. If you do, as you're suggesting, and you want people to follow suit, as your OP is requesting, then please teach me how. For instance, what would you say to someone who was waving a Nazi flag, had a hat that read, "I hate [N word]", and a shirt that read, "Reopen Auschwitz. Take take care of our Jew problem."

@glennlab I'm being sincere. How do you talk to someone described above with respect and empathy? And how do you do so without looking like a Nazi sympathizer?

@JeffMurray Sorry about the delayed reply, Sunday football.
I generally don't engage them except to say I don't agree with them, if I say anything. You are never going to be able change their minds or be able to present any set of facts that influence them.I typically shun them, I respect their right to show themselves a fool.

Nothing says you have to engage on every subject. I have several friends that I never discuss politics of any type with. We have other shared interests that make the relationship worthwhile. I have others that I will not discuss religion with, and still others that I will not discuss sexuality with.

Respect has to do with knowing boundries and not crossing them. Once they have been crossed, what you do is up to you.

They way I would deal with your Nazi/racist example is ignore it, they are looking for confrontation, not dialogue. They are far from trying to engage in social intercourse. The way I dealt with Arayan Nations people in Idaho when I met them in a bar, was to say I didn't believe in their ideas, then refuse to get drug into a conversation.

@glennlab I thought you meant you had a way to engage with respect. I guess I'm just a little more, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” and a little less, "Live and let live." I care a little more about showing respect and empathy to those that are the targets of hate, letting them know they have an ally in me than deference and silence to the hateful, thereby allowing the broadcast of their messages without objection.
I also can't associate with those that harbor such arbitrary hate for the sake of friendship or family togetherness. I have disowned numerous family members for this reason. If they suffer no consequences from being hateful, what exactly prompts them to change?