Ask Lemmygrad

It's not really productive to talk with reactionaries who are clearly just racist dipshits and arguing in bad faith. I try to always remember the Trotsky quote

The tactical, or if you will, “technical,” task was quite simple — grab every fascist or every isolated group of fascists by their collars, acquaint them with the pavement a few times, strip them of their fascist insignia and documents, and without carrying things any further, leave them with their fright and a few good black and blue marks.

But if you have to talk with them I've found the best way isn't to talk with them on equal terms, but rather, aggressively ask what they truly want. So they don't want Muslims or immigrants? Ask them what they're prepared to do about it. What's the solution then? You want to make Islam illegal? Send police to Muslim households to kick in the door? Ripping the hijabs off children?

Make reactionaries confront reality instead of retreating to abstract grievances. Much of their rhetorical power comes from their knowledge of where the socially acceptable line is and how to avoid going too far. Except they're always thinking about what they want, they know they can't outright say they want to exterminate immigrants or trans people or whatever. So they hide behind rhetoric until they've gained power.

I say this because the only rhetorical tactic I've ever observed that works to change a reactionary's mind or at least makes them shup up for a while is insult, embarrassment, and making them say heinous things they themselves may not even realize they believe in. Because of my earlier point, reactionaries know where the line of social acceptability is. Individually though maybe they haven't decided to cross that line yet, so I say drag them over. Like if I ever heard them say the thing about Muslim kids wearing a hijab the only answer to that is asking if they want police to rip a hijab off a child's head. Make a reactionary actually explain what they want.