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I guess this is supposed to be sort of like the "free exchange of ideas".
But it's not a marketplace, it's a potluck dinner.
Everybody brings a covered hotdish with their ideas and you try some of everything.
You may be familiar with some and not familiar with others, some aren't very appealing to your palate,
some are awful, some are an unforgettable culinary revelation that you can't wait to try again.
You can talk about recipes or Julia Child or James Beard, or whatever you talk about when it comes to food.
If someone brings mashed potatoes, you can debate the appropriateness for a potluck: is it too bland?
Will it get cold on the table?
Do potatoes make up too much of our diet?
But if someone puts a steaming platter of dog shit on the table, we're not going to debate it.
And when we tell them to take it off the table, it's not because we are afraid of eating dog shit or we think that it's too dangerous for lunch.
We tell them to get it off the table because there is no debate and there never was.
It's dog shit.
It's not an open question, it's not a matter of palettes or picky eaters.
It's dog shit.
That's why we don't engage with neo-nazis and white supremacists, and it's why we don't (or shouldn't) let them come to the potluck.