[Igottago]

Originally Posted by DiracSpike

I definitely agree that many people, certainly the majority of Trump supporters, mask their racism towards "Muslim looking" people through fake concerns over their religion. A lot of them are extremely ignorant of other middle eastern religions as you mention, just look at the idiot who shot up the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin thinking he was attacking Muslims.

However I also think that the thin separation works the other way when you have people like Sam Harris opining on the dangers of literalist Islam and getting shouted down as being racist. I think that enlightened people having these conversations need to use the correct terms and hope there's a trickle down effect of better dialogue. The desired effect of calling out actual racists gets diluted when too many people toss out the term when its not applicable.

I agree.

I agree with a lot of what Harris says (not all of it), but the area I think he and other "new atheists" (whatever that is) people fall short, is shouting down the actual bigots that are perhaps latching onto their arguments as ammunition. They are too busy trying to win the religious argument that they forget to also attack the legitimate bigotry that seems to be festering. They forget that not everyone is as educated and intellectually capable of making the critical arguments they are, but are still in on the conversation, with views that are less than constructive.