Between the ongoing "cancel culture" bullshit and virulent anti-communism/Sinophobia in the face of the pandemic I think I'm giving up completely on discourse as a means of getting through to people.

We need a goddamned Cultural Revolution.

Because my entire experience with discourse has involved, 99 times out of 100, people falling back on the exact same sets of evasion/dismissal tactics any time the discussion goes somewhere they personally don't want it to but also can't coherently argue against.

Someone pointed out today that "cancel culture" is people being mad at losing the privilege that allows them to ignore arguments they don't like and having to actually *confront* those arguments at all.

Same goes whenever anyone brings up China or any other socialist state.

The response isn't any attempt at reasonable discourse; it is always, without fail, attempts to brand the person who has brought up AES in a positive light as some sort of heinous genocide-denying monster for even daring to suggest that we follow that lead.

Just like how the response to having transphobia called out isn't any attempt at reasonable discourse, but rather attempts to brand the person who did so as some sort of heinous anti-free-speech monster for even daring to suggest that transphobia is out of line.

The only point to either of these 'arguments' is to shut down discussion that has become uncomfortable for those in a position of power/privilege, namely those who stand to gain from whatever has been criticised.

The same is also true for all the claims that "Land Back is ethno-nationalism". Again, it's not a rational argument, just an attempt by white people to shut down discussion that's become uncomfortable for them by painting the 'other side' as heinous fascists.

And, as I've personally experienced, unpacking these non-arguments and telling them to cut it out and engage honestly only makes them dig in deeper and double down on their claims.

I don't know any way to get past this tendency other than literally preventing those people from leaving the room at all, and harshly reprimanding them every time they fall back on these frankly abusive dismissals until they *stop doing this*.

Because if you give them any chance to leave the room, they will. Anything to get away from confronting these realities that make them highly uncomfortable with their lofty positions.

If y'all have a better method other than sheer positive/negative reinforcement (rewards for good discourse, reprimands/punishments for these dismissive patterns), I'm all ears.

Right now? These folks are behaving like children and throwing tantrums over things they don't like. So, as far as I can tell, the only solution is to treat them in kind, reward them for doing good and reprimand for doing wrong.

Perhaps then they'll learn to GROW THE FUCK UP AND ENGAGE IN HONEST DISCOURSE rather than throwing a tantrum every time discourse goes somewhere that makes them vaguely uncomfortable.