Shaun KingVerified account

Unbelievably unacceptable but thank you for letting us know who you are.

Someone asked me why someone "would ever like a monster like Louis Farrakhan?" I provided this as context that in one bubble he's a monster, but in another bubble he's a lifesaver.

"while it's true for many of you that Louis Farrakhan represents bigotry" is knowingly terrible framework. A person who is hateful is hateful. What's more, every single bigot has people in their life who will tell you how the bigot helped them, saved their life.

To respond to someone saying "why would anyone like him" you cannot parse that SOME people think he's a bigot but OTHERS think... Unless you are one of the "others," which is 100% how your tweet reads. Otherwise you'd say "he is a bigot, but there are those who ignore that"

I hear that. My intent is a little different. It is to show that in our bubbles people see each other in radically different ways. And that when we ignore what goes on in those bubbles we misunderstand a great deal of how the world works.

Do you want me to go through racists, Islamaphobes, misogynists and even anti-semites I've known in my life and tell you the time they were nice to me? Or how they lent someone money or volunteer at hospitals, etc? Is that worthwhile to do & decontextualize them from their hate?

I'm really not sure why you think that's useful. Of course there are those that know bigots. Some admire them b/c they don't know of the bigotry. Some admire them despite the bigotry. It's worthwhile to find out the difference & inform the former and take caution with the latter

and to be clear, your tweet makes it very hard to believe you're not the latter.

2/ lives have been saved by these men. I could never know what is truly in their hearts, but I will take them at their words. Words which have caused violence and hatred directed at innocents from many cultures, colors and religions,

I hear you Bob. I'm not sure many people are saying Richard Spencer saved their life and that meeting them was the highlight of their life, but I hear the broader point you are making. I unpack this in a much larger piece coming out soon.

Ive also have been moved by many of Minister Farrakhan's words, very difficult to reconcile for a Jewish boy from upstate New York. Very much looking forward to your piece... as always.

Thanks bro. Just want to add some nuance to it all.

This is so disappointing. The hypocrisy is overwhelming, unless your next tweet is about how complicated a man David Duke is, how much good he has done for his followers.

No, what I am doing, if you saw the context, is to unpack how in our bubbles, religious or otherwise, one person sees a hero who saved his life and the others see a monster. I'm trying to help us get out of our bubbles on this issue.

What could your point possibly be? Is there more to people than insane bigotry? Usually, but some behavior is so odious decent people don't say, "yeah but . . . " David Duke might be good about recycling or bringing food to a woman in need, but you'll never see me tweeting that.

I'm glad you asked. People asked me: How could someone even like this monster of a man? I responded with this to give context for such a person.

okay Shaun...but the fact is if someone told you "David Duke is a monster -BUT he sent my kid to college and helped my family out in tough times" what would you say to that person? You don't need to provide context for bigotry.