No, Not Everyone Who Disagrees With You Is an -Ist or -Phobe (and Other Argumentation Pitfalls)
The Problem I recently came across this video about TERFs or "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists". What bothered me was not the video itself, but the comments section below. Now of course I know that Youtube comments are the bane of existence itself, but hear me out. I have also recently been kinda following the James Damore debacle where the same issues come up in argumentation a lot. The issue I am currently frustrated about is that anyone who disagrees with anyone else is disturbingly likely to be called a misogynist, racist, leftist, Marxist, Islamophobe, transphobe, or a bunch of other things I won't bother listing simply for disagreeing with a certain position. There is often not (read: never) any sort of actual proof or evidence to back this claim up. That's not to say, of course, that it's never true. After all, calling actual neo-Nazis racists is not a stretch. It's hard to defend the idea that one does not believe in the superiority ...