One of the arts of politics is knowing when to save your breath

Many may think we should engage in discussions with the anti-immigration crowd & other right-wingers who come to my wall, usually over issues of racism & immigration. But one of the arts of politics is knowing when to save your breath.

You can’t reason people out of deeply held prejudices & idiocies; you can’t talk them down from racism & hate. I tried to do that for years until I understood reason was insufficient. The haters just use those go-arounds to hone their epithetical skills & you work your adrenalin into a lather for nothing.

That’s what social movements & power politics are all about. Political power, like civil rights & women’s rights movements, can teach overnight what years of debates can’t get through thick skulls.

I’m a great respecter of discussions that go somewhere & among those who share a common vision of human solidarity. Intellectual wrangling & pissing contests with right-wingers is not that.