Only off the cuff in seminars and art exhibits because they brought it up first. Of the dozens I’ve talked to they’ve been universally abhorrent people who only care for their immediate concerns and will gladly kill you if given the chance. Their aligning with leftists movements seems to be a coincidence, if not outright opportunistic. They’ll appropriate terms and ideas and bastardize them in their own ideologically inconsistent way (like “lived experiences”, “bodies”, “dialogues”) while refusing all historical precedents (USSR, East Germany, DPRK, PRC, Vietnam … but for some reason never Cuba?*), and subscribing to racist ideas of blood purity and enlightenment race science like IQ, propensity for violence, “creativity gene”, the proportion of black athletes in basketball (??), penis size, “care-giving gene” of Asian women, phrenology, and a bunch of other mind-numbing nonsense. Like, they’re so obsessed with this shit while also wanting a minimum wage increase or something, and suddenly that makes them O.K.? It’s so strange. Maybe I’m just living in a so-called shit hole? They’ll always ask if I studied history in a condescendingly bewildered way. Yes, I majored in it, this is exactly why I’m saying it.

Never met a more closeted racist bunch in my life; at least the conservatives are open about their hate. Somehow the conservatives I’ve met are more knowledgeable about Israel’s fuckery, which is just about the only thing I agree with them on, whereas these SJW types will cry about antisemitism for the nth time, and will always mention the Doctor’s Plot and some forced connection to the Holocaust, as if they’re going through a mental checklist. Yes I am bitter about my university experience. Hopefully that changes post-COVID when they realize their idealist visions are impossible.

The one thing I realized is that debates (formal or otherwise) are useless and serves as an exhibit in rhetoric and sophistry. I believe Plato or Aristotle said something akin to it, but I never thought to put two and two together until recently. If you want to convince someone, they have to be the one to approach you, in earnest, and you have to tread very carefully. The Socratic method works best when it’s an apolitical topic, and when both parties are neutral and intellectually honest with themselves. I’d rather just tell them off and give resources than baby someone like that.

*My pet theory for Cuba is that they come from privileged backgrounds, and have some memories of vacationing at their resort beaches.