So we hope that bigots will suddenly start listening to facts when they've been ignoring them for years? I like to think I'm something of a pacifist all things considered, but I don't think being nice is going to help. I want to create a world where being a bigot is the thing that gets you excluded from society.[/b]
Hm...I guess I sort of see your stance. And feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but you feel that playing the nice card won't get us anywhere in terms of convincing them otherwise - right?
How I sort of look at this situation is this. There are two roads you can go: you can either call them a [insert derogatory classification]ist or you can try and reason with them. And honestly, both can work based on the individual or audience that you are conversing with. It varies based on the person, essentially.
Through my own personal discussions, whether you may agree with or not, my approach I've concluded with is if you straight up call someone a racist, sexist, etc. that gets the person on the defensive which inevitably derails the whole conversation and purpose of what you are trying to achieve. The individual is so wrapped up in protecting their own ego that the whole purpose is lost. However, if you try to understand their point of view
before you do this/try to reason them otherwise, you are creating a neutral conversing ground to work off of instead of one where you pissed off the individual you are trying to convince otherwise.
Do I wish individuals who do not accept bisexuality were excluded from society? Of course. I think we should try to be accepting of individuals as much as possible - that's sort of the foundation of what our country - i.e. America, at least for me - was built off of. However, unfortunately, one needs to take the higher ground and approach the matter delicately, as if the situation becomes these individuals are outright excluded but we don't try to make things outright, than their unaccepting attitudes may potentially spread to others and the problem becomes worse. Does more harm than good, essentially.
Bottom line is you're going to run into people who suck and want to make you rip your hair out. However, if you match their ignorance with blatant insults or labels like racist, sexist, etc., nothing productive is going to result. We can think these things, but we can't say them if your purpose is to convince them otherwise in my opinion.
