As someone who took etiquette lessons, politeness is an incredibly effective tool for disarming bigots. You can either force them to reconsider their words/actions by directly and calmly confronting their behavior (by using the rules of society in your favor), or you can dip entirely while they appear to be in the wrong.
Because the thing is, when bigots pick fights, they are 100% counting on you to get louder than them. Or meaner. They want you to react emotionally and provide fodder for their âYouâre Too Emotionally Immature To Understandâ cannon.
What they arenât expecting you to do is say one of the following phrases in a polite, concerned tone:
Thatâs not the kind of language I was raised to use with others.
Do you need a moment to think on why that wasnât acceptable?
This is no way to engage in intelligent conversation. Please try that again in a kinder tone if youâd like this to continue. (I really like this one because it lets you turn their public-shame rhetoric around)
For those of you whoâd are spiteful and/or dealing with Fundamentalists/Evangelicals/generally shitty Christians:
Whatâs happening in your life to cause you this much anger? I canât imagine hurting so badly that I need to hurt other people.
Who taught you it was acceptable to treat other people this way? Certainly not the Jesus I remember.
Whatever happened to âjudge not lest ye be judgedâ?
If I talked like that in front of my parents or grandparents I would be ashamed.
I think thereâs something you need to pray on before we try and have this conversation.
And my all time favorite:
âIt sounds to me like there are some seriously dark and angry forces at work in your heart.â
(Nothing stops a Christian bigot in their tracks faster than implying the Devil is causing their bigotry. But you MUST be calm, polite, and gentle with your tone and wording. It is absolutely fair to twist the rules and play them at their own game, but you gotta play hard.)
TLDR: Itâs much faster to use etiquette, politeness, and rhetoric reversal when eviscerating idiots online and in person, because they arenât expecting you to weaponize their behaviors back in their direction. Donât get angry, get spitefully polite! :)
