jawafour wrote:I appreciate the considered response, Cuttooth, and I'm in agreement with it. I'm not certain of the gist you're driving at in terms of how it relates to my post, though. Some folk appeared to be suggesting that one should not hold conversations with people who hold racist / offensive views, and I responded by saying that I felt communication was a tool in trying to change their views. I guess we're both just in agreement that attempting to challenge and change viewpoints through discussion is a road worth exploring?
Dialogue and education is absolutely the best tool to improve views on a subject, society wide, but it's also vital to acknowledge that not everyone engaging in that dialogue is doing so in good faith. There's a reason schools don't (or definitely shouldn't) invite homophobes into classrooms to provide balance when teaching sex education, for instance.
Another pertinent example is the anti vax community. Anti vax people phrase their argument as a legitimate desire to have their concerns heard, and question why the medical community is so closed off to criticism. Of course, their arguments are not legitimate, and the figureheads of the cause know this. They aren't interested in finding out the truth, but maintaining the illusion that there's still an argument to be had. There is no link between vaccines and autism, but they'll continue to bleat about how they "just want to have a conversation", even though the scientific community already had, and concluded, that conversation years ago. The longer appearance of a balanced debate is maintained, though, the more people the movement can pick up.
The alt-right are not out for an honest discussion. They're not in this to find solutions to legitimate problems. They're out to keep their xenophobic agenda part of the discussion, because the longer it hangs around on the sidelines, the more legitimate it seems. Giving these people a platform, making them part of legitimate discussion, only serves to normalise extreme views even further.
You can only engage with and educate those who are open to having their ideas challenged. Yaxley-Lennon is not one of those people.