Introducing The Next Generation Of Leaders And Thinkers

My New Year’s Resolution: Stop Engaging Bigots

Most young, educated people, myself included, love a good debate. Constructive arguments can be intellectually stimulating and allow us to consider multiple points of view to a topic. The issue is when a friendly debate turns into one party attempting to defend their basic human rights from the “opinions” of the other party.

There are many topics that can get very intense such as politics and stances on social issues. It can be really hard not to engage into a debate when it comes to things that touch so close to home. There was a time when I would try my hardest to calmly explain why I felt a certain way about things and when the other person would shoot me down, I would continue to attempt and keep my cool no matter how hurtful their opinion was.

There comes a point when I get tired of defending my own humanity. 

Bigots aren’t rational human beings, so rational arguments won’t make any sense to them. This absolutely does not mean that I won’t speak up when someone is being blatantly discriminatory but when it becomes emotionally draining to continue a conversation, I will remove myself from the conversation.

I feel like many people often keep attempting to explain things because they feel like if they don’t they will be admitting defeat or seem cowardly. However this is not the case, you do not have the obligation to educate anyone especially someone who refuses to learn and/or continues to attack you.

Don’t get me wrong, education based activism can be very effective. This can be seen in the way that states that require non-abstinence based education have a significantly lower teenage pregnancy rate. However, this form of activism only works if the other party is willing to learn.

Explaining social justice to an egg avatar on twitter will do nothing but further upset you.

2016 was truly a year of nightmares. It seemed like every time I said the word bigot, another one appeared seemingly from thin air. This new year, I’m working on putting my time and energy towards productive forms of activism and I encourage you all to do the same.

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