Yes, we can treat them with respect. But you’ve failed to give any concrete reason why we should. You’ve said something vague about how we “do it for our sakes,” but you’ve not said how being respectful to them is helpful to us. You seem to want these people to stick around and continue posting here, but you’ve not said why this is a good thing.
I argue it is into a good thing. We want them to either stop posting bigoted shit or to leave. The last thing we want for this board is a place where people feel comfortable spewing the worst kinds of bigotry, as doing so inherently attacks the people it is directed toward. This makes those people feel unwelcome, as well as many other people. We’ve lost a lot of posters because of how accommodating we’ve been to bigoted shit.
As I said, there’s a choice. You can respect bigots, or you can respect women, people of color, LGBT people, etc. You can have a forum that is a comfortable place for bigots, or a forum that is a comfortable place for everyone else.
It is merely my privilege that allows me to think of bigotry as merely “distasteful,” as it doesn’t really harm me as a white male. Bigotry is morally wrong, not just distasteful. Sure, like all morally wrong things, you can do it accidentally. And you can do it in larger or smaller amounts. But it’s not just rude or disrespectful. It’s worse.
The old naive idea that we need to include the bad people out of a sense of tolerance has been disproven over and over by reality. It’s why, for example, cons started kicking out those who would mistreat women or make them uncomfortable. They found that, by getting rid of those assholes, they made the place more welcoming to more people.
My goal is that no bigots wind up posting here. Sure, people who accidentally trip on something bigoted are fine, as is some debate near the line. But actual full on bigotry should be unwelcome in any place that claims to support civility.
I know I could treat these bigots with respect. But that just enables them. It increases the amount of bigotry on this board. I don’t want that. So I choose not to respect them.
I could, but I fail to see why I should.