Discussion on answer by FiatLux: Politely refusing to validate veiled bigotry

@micromachine Absolutely, but this question (from what I can tell) is about what to do when the person in question is not actually expressing such opinions, rather the OP feels that they are hiding their true opinions by talking about something else?

@sgf putting absurdities in the mouths of the people you're arguing with is not a "semantic" argument. It's logical fallacy, and, as apaul already mentioned, a really good indication of your underlying motive.

@sgf "Also if homophobia and racism were obviously wrong, they wouldn't be as widespread as they are" why do you think that? There are no proof of gods or miracles and yet over 90% of people on earth are religious. Humans are not machines that follow what is obvious, they are confused, often irrational containers of emotions

@Stacey because someone knowingly harming another person through the voicing of their opinions is fact, not something subjective (everyone knows what hurt feels like and agrees it's a negative emotion). I understand that the original question implies that harming someone's feelings is "wrong". A rational approach (versus emotional) is any solution that doesn't "harm" others. i.e. LGBTQ+ person or PoC is not "harming" people by just existing.

@jkf a person does not chose to be a minority (PoC, LGBTQ+, etc, that's just an example), but a person voicing harmful opinions does indeed chose to do so, sometimes knowingly, therefore they are 100% accountable for their behavior. Nothing prevents them from not harming others but themselves. There is definitely a polite and a rude way to tell someone their opinions are outdated are harmful, this is what the OP is about

@apaul Not sure if the Richard Spencer question is for me? If so I am Canadian and don't know much about him, but he certainly sounds unpleasant. It seems like your first question generalizes poorly if it is strictly about Richard Spencer though, as it seems unlikely that very many people would be dealing with him on an interpersonal level. As I said your second question on how to deal with acolytes of Richard Spencer could potentially attract useful answers.