[zepto]

“The left can't improve the situation by trying to debate with people that's unwilling to debate in the first place, period.“

This is true.

However the left can improve the situation by being willing to debate people who are willing to debate, and yet casual dismissals or irrelevances about whiteness and racism stop that dead.

Look at this comment as an example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25698039

By not doing so, they do create the climate for extremism, frankly at both ends.

Extremism is a problem, but it’s a false dichotomy to think of extremism as somehow independent of what everyone else does.

[8note]

The people who claim to be willing to debate aren't necessarily willing to debate though. Someone like a Richard Spencer is really looking to gish gallop and not debate