A lot of people are going to hate this and immediately reject it but hear me out.

The biggest mistake Democrats have made for years and years is being too nice.

We have cared far too much about politeness and decorum. We have treated a bloodsport like it was a bridge game.

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Since at least when Obama took office (but more like the past forty years), we on the left and our elected representatives have clung to a suicidal fiction that ‘going high’ would save us.

Subconsciously, it is pleasing, at least partially, because it is self-inflating.

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“We are better than that! We would never stoop to the lows of those people!”

While the right endlessly works to personally destroy people on the left, we’ve clung to the mantra of “attacking ideas not people” as if it was a bible verse.

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And that excessive politeness - or insufficient harshness - extends all the way down through how we treat minor figures aligned with the right.

People on cable news panels. Minor celebrities. Talking heads.

We bitch about what they say but do little to diminish them.

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Let’s take Kirstie Alley as just one example of the moment...

Here’s an Alley tweet from yesterday.

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A lot of people will fire back about *what she said*.

Very few will fire back *about her*.

The former feels more polite. The latter feels so very uncivilized.

Here is the problem: when you engage with someone’s opinions, you elevate them to being worthy of consideration.

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By refusing to go directly after that person’s standing and worthiness of being listened to, we don’t stay above someone going low.

We give them a free lift up to our level.

Engaging with terrible ideas puts terrible people at the table.

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While a whole lot of people are going to hate this:

If we are not aggressively working to diminish the people working against us, we are helping them.

If we aren’t going after them and their reputations personally, we are helping them.

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In response to Alley’s post, we’re all going to do what we’re programmed to do: comment on the comment.

“You like him because he’s not a politician?! Do you like pilots who have never flown?!”

It’s a layup. It’s practically reflex at this point.

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All that does though is get Alley’s name to trend for a day and then leave her to come back a month from now with some new stupid or harmful thing.

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Kirstie Alley has no political expertise. She has little education past high school - about as much as Melania.

She is in two cults. MAGA and Scientology.

She reportedly sold her $12 million L.A. mansion to move near Scientology’s Florida headquarters.

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Kirstie Alley is an ignorant, rich, gullible white woman with no credentials that merit being listened to or respected.

She endorses both a harmful, abusive cult in Scientology and a racist, abusive cult in MAGA.

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Kirstie Alley is an idiot.

An idiot okay with racism.

She is a stupid person who has not endeavored to become any smarter.

She is a the epitome of the privilege of both whiteness and wealth.

The problem isn’t Kirstie Alley’s words. The problem is Kirstie Alley.

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And some version of this is the case for every right wing asshat who poisons the discourse.

And we should focus on that.

The problem *is* the person not their latest words.

“Criticize the ideas not the person” is like saying “Treat the symptoms not the cause.”

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As much as people will hate this, we have allowed every manner of terrible person to get to the table with us by “criticizing ideas not people.”

We need to stand up in the cocktail party, make the record scratch, and say “THAT PERSON IS AN ASSHOLE. GET THEM OUT OF HERE.”

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I’m rambling and I need another coffee but I’ll leave with this:

We need to aggressively diminish harmful people personally to reduce or take away their seat at the table.

The right is terrified of ‘cancel culture’ because they’re worried we might have learned that...

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