I'm always disappointed in comments on articles across the board, but Salon is usually the worst. The argument that "there is no such thing as tolerance of the intolerant" always distresses me. It seems obvious to me that responding to prejudice and hate with more hatred and insults is never going to work.
I have to say I think I'm pretty intolerant of intolerance. If I can see a glimmer of an open mind that's enough for me to be pragmatic and explanatory in most cases, but to a point. When the bigotry of others is actively harming people in pragmatic real life situations I'm not above letting them know what I think of them in less than flattering terms. As with anything, you have to know your audience and tailor the most effective message to attain your goals based on that, and i do think that a carrot and not a stick works best in most cases, but I've seen plenty of situations where I'd lose no sleep calling a bigot a bigot. Some donkeys just aren't hungry.
Does calling a bigot a bigot do anything to change their mind? I admire your stance but I wonder what you hope to gain by it? For me its a bit like calling a crazy person crazy, they either wont agree with you and say "I'm not Crazy, some of my best friends are sane..." but by going head on against them you will never convince them otherwise. The people who actually are crazy and know it are unlikely to be bothered by you calling them nuts.
I don't think it changes their mind, but it does let them know that I see their beliefs for what they are. A lot of the most bigoted beliefs are protected from self-scrutiny beneath a mantle of divine sanction informed by the person's religion. They actually think their belief is good and moral. I do think it's worthwhile to staight up call that out for what it is, -pure and simple run of the mill bigotry. When you're holding bigotry up on a pedestal as a belief system to aspire to and admire, you need to know that the rest of the world not only doesn't agree, but sees it as actually immoral and damaging. Polite deference isn't always enough. But again, I basically never call someone with bigoted beliefs a bigot to their face as it isn't generally productive on a face-to-face basis. An exception was my dad, who, when faced with my opposition to his thinking homosexuality was wrong and gays be allowed to marry, asked me if he was then a bigot and demanded I answer him. I had to inform him that sadly, yes, he was, but I still loved him and he had a lot of other great qualities :) He found out later that year that his daughter was gay, and now he magically changed his stance :P Funny how that works. It's also important to keep in mind that calling someone a bigot if they actually hold bigoted beliefs isn't a slur or an insult. It's just a truth they hate hearing and it's considered a truth that is impolite to speak out loud.
Yeah, I get that. That makes sense. I was more referring to the sort of people who don't see the point in attempting to reason and discuss these things, instead claiming that those sorts of people are "scum" and not worth educating and/or talking to. The sort of people who show an equal amount of hate and disgust toward the bigoted sorts of people.