Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight
If you want reasonable discourse, you don't need to be dealing with the people directly responsible for the unreasonable discourse.
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Actually, I think that is exactly what you need to do. You need to take on the unreasonable, with the understanding that the result may not be to sway the person being unreasonable but those who follow him. Do you disagree that there are people in his congregation that are reachable? And if you don't, which do you think is more effective, demonizing the person they follow or having a reasonable discourse with them?
A member of my family might be in the wrong about something, and you might be able to convince me of that fact through reasonable discourse, but if you start out by insulting them and demonizing them, then right or wrong, you are going to bring my defenses up because they are still my family. And the likelihood of you swaying me from that point on has just diminished greatly. Telling me that you are concerned about my father's drinking and telling me that my father is a no good stinking drunk are going to be met with very different reactions, even if the latter holds more actual truth than the former.