When I started reading this thread I thought to myself "all right, finally a conversation about the toxic language on this forum." After all, it's messed up how many people here use language that treats others as inferior beings. Then I kept reading and ... well look, iruinedyourday I give you props for calling out an important issue, but man you need to work on your people skills!
If you want to change people's minds (assuming they're not trolls or actual KKK), yelling/screaming/arguing with them won't work. That just puts them on the defensive, makes them argue for their position, and then they believe it even more strongly than before you started.
Instead, you have to engage with them: appeal to their better nature and try and treat them like fellow human beings instead of as adversaries.
So yeah, whether a forum post says "that loser is gay" or "that loser is a failure" DOES matter. No one wants to see themselves or a group they belong to used as a placeholder for suckiness. But the only way to make others see that is to show it to them, not to berate them.
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