-1 and flagged -- I don't see how this is anything but a troll. An analagous question from the McCarthy era might be "politely refusing to validate veiled communism"; unlikely to lead to anything productive. — jkf 1 min ago

@BenI. Lunch +shopping sounds like a couple of hours to me. My friend interaction time is pretty much the same amount max. I think that an hour is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to spend with someone that still values their time. — Stacey 37 secs ago

+1 for first bullet point. I don't agree with your second bullet point. — Steve 1 min ago

@EmC That certainly sounds like, if not the quote I was thinking of, then the quote that the quote I was thinking of was referencing. — Chronocidal 1 min ago

@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. — MicroMachine 8 secs ago

It's pretty clear that the poster is trolling as a way of advancing their own agenda here -- a real answer might be "calling someone a bigot and accusing them of disingenuity is never a polite thing to do", which does not seem to be what OP is after... — jkf 55 secs ago

Re the edit: "how do I talk to my stepson about bigoty stuff he's been watching (and believing) on YouTube" sounds like a much nicer question. — Stacey 1 min ago

Comments are not for extended discussion, nor are they for expressing your disagreement with an answer (see this meta post). If your comment is not suggesting improvements or requesting clarification it is subject to deletion by mods / flags. If you'd like to discuss the answer, you can take it to Interpersonal Skills Chat. — Em C 1 min ago

@GretchenV I've edited to add a really narrow example. — apaul 1 min ago

Probably legitimately downvoted for advocating lying, but still I'm rather fond of this answer. — T.E.D. 55 secs ago

@DoritoStyle I respectfully disagree with your comment in whole. — Jon 28 secs ago

@emc I see there are quite a few questions about this already, which seem to be significant downvote magnets. I can't help but wonder whether there is a group of users going around downvoting content which does not conform to their worldview? I will ask a question about those comments -- it seems like this question is on it's way to closure in any case, although it seems like if we don't want discussion of close votes in the comments, a link to meta should be provided somewhere where it can't be deleted or buried so easily. — jkf 45 secs ago

Also... The question has been closed, edited, and reopened. Not sure if you'd noticed. — apaul 1 min ago

I fail to understand why mine got a downvote. — Pheo 43 secs ago