And that’s how things escalate.

Some of the "problems" people have aren't solvable. There are people who are just racist or sexist etc. There are certainly a lot of problems these groups have which we can and should solve: poverty, drug addiction, lack of social mobility, education. But sometimes the core issue really is pure unadulterated hate. What then?

That’s a very simplistic view, and false reductionism.

You take no efforts to understand their grievances, hear them out, so their problems never get solved.

By reducing people to simple labels, it might be able to deal with them in your own mind with a reduced cognitive load, but this leads to further alienation and eventually full breakdown of coexistence.

These people are here. They have problems with how things are run. Deny them the soap box and you push them to the ammo box. I hope I never see this in my beloved country.

Yeah, we should just reinstate slavery already so the white supremacists won't be so angry all the time.

/s

How does this help the conversation? Are you engaging me in good faith? If not, why?

So what is your alternative? Do we need to bend over backwards to appease the guys in “six million wasn’t enough” shirts? How much political legitimacy should we give to people who are all-in on ridiculous conspiracy theories? How much attention to Holocaust deniers deserve? Do flat-earthers deserve equal time in geography class?

So you are lumping several groups together who have nothing to do with one another except the fact that you disagree with them.

So the first step in deescalation would be to understand their grievances. What are the big issues they care about? Why do they care about them? Is there a common ground?

The more you call regular Americans who’s parents and grandparents fought and died fighting Germany, Nazi’s, the more you show that you not only don’t understand them and their views, you show you have no interest in learning about their views.

Remember what happened last time there was taxation without representation?

The more you sum up large swaths of people with simple labels, the more you show your own bigotry and lack of empathy.

First try to understand, then find common ground. These people are here to stay, we can either cooperate with them or fight them. Is the best armed population group on the planet the one you want to corner into armed conflict?

I’m speaking more broadly. I don’t feel inclined to solve ISIS’ problems either but they’re not going to go away unless we sit down with them.

Hardline stances seem nice until people get hurt and progress isn’t made.