It seems that in society today, when confronted with bigotry or intolerance, simply explaining why it is harmful or damaging to the bigot doesn’t seem to work.  What I mean by work is that it doesn’t cause the person making bigoted or intolerant remarks to actually think about their statements.

I propose a different strategy: having them explain or break down their claims for you.  It follows the burden of proof.  The ones making the claims must also be the ones to support or back up their claims.  When one does this with the typical bigoted remarks, such as “they’re taking all our jobs/they abuse the welfare system/they are all terrorists,” the maker of the remark usually has to actually pause and consider the words blindly being spewed.  

This is also where their remarks begin to implode.  After asking them to explain or break down their claim, a great follow up would be to ask for their evidence supporting their reasoning.  As the claims usually made are pretty much groundless at worst and gross exaggerations or generalizations at best.  Usually.

And yes, I know; this plays off some people’s inability to critically think or to break down an argument.  But if someone is going to be spouting off hateful or bigoted rhetoric, shouldn’t they have given it some critical thought before they opened their mouth in the first place?

From Anonymous

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