Yeah, it's a very sharp edge that needs to be walked.
On the one hand, dismissing a large segment of the population as ignorant hicks without any valuable input just seems to put wind in their sails. On the other hand, ignoring potentially dangerous language and behavior or even tacitly supporting it (just give him a chance) can lead to something even worse. There have been plenty of instances in history where otherwise reasonable people didn't speak out against the ignorant, incendiary and sometimes hateful rhetoric of democratically elected populist leaders and as far as I know it's never lead to anything good.
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