I have a post today, titled "Fightin’ Words," over at Public Humanist. It’s about figuring out how to deal with people whose opinions we find not just wrong but offensive and destructive. I write:
But what about when we’re dealing, publicly, with people who seem not to operate by those rules, who seem driven by resentment and fear and prejudice? Or people who just seem too stupid, ignorant or shallow to justify the influence they have and the damage they do (I’m looking at you, Tim Russert)? What about when we’re dealing with sadists like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity? What about racists, misogynists, anti-Semites?
Does there come a point at which it becomes appropriate to stop treating what the other person says as meaningful communication but instead as a political act—an expression of power—that needs to be met with an equal or greater expression of speech as power? Does there come a time, as Patrick Swayze suggested in “Road House,” when it’s time to not be nice?
