The alternative to kicking racists and facists off of reddit is not, "racists and facists no longer exist." It's, "a massive swath of the population feels manip

The alternative to kicking racists and facists off of reddit is not, "racists and facists no longer exist." It's, "a massive swath of the population feels manipulated and ostracised," and "we further cement population divides in the country because we've prevented people from opposite sides of the issue from seeing each other." Imagine the backlash when that situation resolves. I feel like the author is suffering from the one sided fallacy (I'm sure there's a better name for it). We had two choices, we choose one and now we're grappling with the consequences of it. But that doesn't mean that the other option doesn't have consequences just as bad or worse. This is a classic case where, as a society, we're forced to make a major decision with very little hard data. Based on what I know of history, I'm more willing to err on the side of more speech rather than less speech. We have very recent examples in the US where a desire for sanitized civil discourse led to an inappropriate application of the "Safe Spaces" concept, and repeated instances of internet lynch mobs thought policing in an effort to make sure people are only engaged in good speak. Trump did not create racism. Trump has simply taken advantage of a problem that has been festering for a while. Banning them from the internet doesn't get rid of the problem, it only makes it fester worse. The quiet problems have now become loud and that's a good thing. With these issues in the open, it lets us address them instead of bury them. Blaming the internet for racism is like blaming camera phones for police brutality. The problem has been there all along, and now we see it in ugly detail. The author is arguing that there should be an end to history. That there just has to be a time when racism is dead and we can stop talking about it. This is baloney. The very definition of racism changes as our culture evolves and that changing definition will always be a point of contention. Worse yet, racism is almost certainly something that is biologically ingrained in people. We are a deeply tribalistic species and we're always looking to associate ourselves with those most similar to us. The war against racism is a war against our own biology and it's a war we can win. Childhood is all about training children to appropriately manage their biological impulses, maybe someday we'll treat racism like we treat potty training; a phase that every child goes through while raising them.