a lot of the “boomer” talk for example has basically evolved into general ageism against the elderly

Hey, just thanks for acknowledging this. Bothers me so much.

To be honest, when I was a mildly-homophobic 8 year old, the “they can do what they like in the privacy of their own homes but keep it away from public view” type, flinging insults didn’t do anything to alienate gay people from empathy. Using “gay” as an insult and saying the f-slur would actually turn me away from you and to look at LGBTQ+ with more sympathy.

I’m guessing most people don’t work like that, though. I would like to figure out how we can have most people turn off that part of their brain, that’s susceptible to the name calling, and only responds to peoples’ views. Aside from that complete disconnect in understanding an experience where insults might alienate people from my empathy and helping sway neutrals over to pseudo-allies, understanding how that happens, thanks for explaining, it was pretty helpful. I appreciate it 😊