Arguing with bigots

Every so often something on social media will cross my eye regarding the logical inconsistencies of racist/homophobic/super religious/all of the above folks. Sometimes it's just a funny meme pointing out something illogical, other times it's a link to an article where (Popular figure) DESTROYS (Noted bigot). They can be funny, or annoying, but generally are pretty much white noise to me these days.

I feel like this kind of stuff is at best making a neutral impact on the perception of these issues/people and at worst maybe actually doing some harm to progressive causes.

I want to be clear, I am not saying these people shouldn't be mocked, they should, and at every opportunity, most of them should be punched in the head as well, my problems with these postings is more about giving them a platform than anything because you see, to have an argument destroyed, you must first be given a chance to lay out your argument so it can be destroyed. The problem with that is logic isn't what is used to form the belief that black people are genetically inferior to whites or to claim that the world is six thousand years old or whatever hateful, regressive belief these people have. Addressing these issues like there is an argument to be had at all legitimizes those positions far more than they deserve.

A few years ago Bill Nye publicly debated noted creationist Ken Ham, in an event that promised to use scientific thinking to argue for either side of the debate. It quickly turned into Nye actually talking about science and evidence, and Ham just falling back on "The bible says so". Both sides considered it a win but by virtue of engaging with the idea in an intellectually honest way, the creationist camp was given legitimacy in a way that they don't get too often.

There is no point in arguing that science and reason support the idea that all people are equal, or that trans-folk exist. That isn't quite what I meant, I mean there is no point in arguing rationally with people who believe the opposite of those things. Who the fuck wants to stand up and debate a Nazi in public? No one! Throw a brick at them! That is literally the only argument they deserve.

In general education is a good thing that pushes equality and social justice on it's own, but the moment we start treating those opposing views as deserving of rational argument we lose ground, people become aware of the topics, and become encouraged to speak publicly about how they want to hang a minority or some shit like that is a thing society tolerates now.

The bigots are never going to argue in good faith anyway, their "facts" are always made up or dramatically misinterpreted, on purpose, they will use every logical fallacy possible and cannot be trusted to abide by any terms set up beforehand. The religious ones are even worse, when backed into corner, or even challenged a little, "god did it" becomes their only answer, and you can't really argue with that.

Any religious zealot asking for a debate is lying and acting in bad faith, here's the thing about faith: It doesn't care about facts. If you believe then that should be enough for you. Who gives a shit if scientists think the universe is billions of years old? You know that it isn't, and you know that god isn't threatened by those ideas either, how could he? He's literally omnipotent and everything in the world moves according to his plan? A religious person looking to debate religion vs science in public is either someone without true faith, or a grifter like Ken Ham. Or both I guess. Either way it does more harm than good to give them a platform.

To sum up, make fun of these people always, but do so without suggesting that their arguments deserve serious consideration or thought, do not give them a platform, and when in doubt remember that most of them probably deserve a milkshake being thrown on them. Or a brick.