Sam, in my opinion, is at best imprecise and at worst needlessly vague. Which is what I'd call "muddying the waters", but maybe you have different associations with that idiom. (ESL, you know.)

Fair enough. But I disagree. I found his essay to be clear, but dealing with a complicated issue. It seems easy enough to me to understand his intent and meaning.

Being ignorant yourself is human fallibility. An ignorant community, e.g. Silicon Valley, means we're talking about systemic problems that needs more than just talking to Joe. And I agree with your approach to personal debates, but I think that Sam is arguing for a practice that I see as a systemic issue: the empowering of hatred, either directly or indirectly.

I'm not talking about personal debate alone. I didn't intend to. I'm talking about open discussion too, blogs, radio, cocktail parties, whatever. Building a rationale for bad ideas is even more difficult in the public sphere.

It didn't stop Trump, we know that. But shouldn't it have stopped Trump? Isn't this exactly what the whole #metoo is about? That there should be consequences for being an awful person? It hasn't been so in the past, but I see that status quo as the systemic problem.

I strongly disagree. Trump's ideas should not have prevented him from getting loans. Criminal actions, sure, but ideas and opinions, no. I do not want to live in a world where my bank loan is subject to a measure of morality, decided by whom? We should be extremely cautious about empowering groups or institutions with the ability to penalize us outside of a legal framework. I recently pointed out the left as a subculture that is drowning in such sensitivities:

I am reticent to say what #metoo is all about; I don't think I can. However, criminal acts have been tolerated or willfully ignored. That should not be the case, and I am hopeful that victims will feel increasingly empowered to report it, and that would be perpetrators will know that they will be punished. This particularly matters to me as a father.

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. -Voltaire

I thought we all understood what Voltaire was saying. The greater danger is the alternative.

BTW, I found Sam's clarification unnecessary. It didn't change my reading of his first.