Argumentative Penguin
2 min readJun 5, 2021

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Your argument is made well - but I think that it's flawed because the meanings of the terms you've listed are changing all the time. As those terms grow to encompass more and more behaviours and become increasingly meaningless then your position becomes tenuous.

From a cursory glance at your back catalogue, I can see your a fan of Harry and Meghan. Would you expect her to give up her husband to be friends with you? Remembering he's dressed as a Nazi in the past, has spent some of his career in the British army and comes from the family who own the empire? Doesn't your support of them make you a racist? Or a sexist, given the laws that govern the monarchy. Is your support of the monarchy enough for me to label you as a racist enabler, a supporter of white supremacy and insist we can never be friends?

Here's a better example. You have a muslim friend and a gay friend. Your muslim friend insists that they don't want their child taught about homosexuality at school. Your gay friend insists this is homophobic. Your muslim friend insists this is western islamaphobia and culturally insensitive. Do you bin them both off? Do you pick one? Apparently neither of these people can be your friend. Do you have an opinion? Your Muslim friend then insists that Palestine should be freed from the oppression of Israel, your jewish friends claim this is anti-semitic, your muslim friends claim it's Islamaphobia. Now what? What do you do with relatives? What happens if one of your friends has racist family members? Does your friendship cease, or do they have to leave their family behind and commit their life entirely to you?

The example that you've given is convincing because of it's simplicity and it seems like there was no great loss of friendship there. But your binary positioning of good vs evil will lead you to take a very intolerant position in a complex world. The dichotomy of good and bad doesn't apply in all situations.

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Argumentative Penguin
Argumentative Penguin

Written by Argumentative Penguin

Playwright. Screenwriter. Penguin. Fan of rationalism and polite discourse. Find me causing chaos in the comments. Contact: argumentativepenguin@outlook.com

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