When talking to a tea bagger, don't debate their talking point.

[upaloopa]

Tea baggers or wing nuts come on a liberal talk show or come up to you and blurt out some wing nut talking point. It is a mistake to let them have control by debating that talking point.

Do this instead:

1. Tell them the talking point is not true.

2. Insult them for being stupid enough to believe the talking point.

3. Tell them what the truth is or give some other liberal talking point

4. Then walk away.

[begin_within]

1. That's what Obama should do in the debates.

[BainsBane]

2. I've never met a real live teabagger

I only see them online. I work at a university and live in a dark blue city. My life is blessedly sheltered from nut jobs.

[HopeHoops]

3. Then there's the "I know you are but what am I?" approach.

Turn it around on them. Most teabagger talking points can easily be wrestling reversals. "I don't want tax money going to (fill in the blank)" - "So you've never (something involving the blank)?" Roads, schools, bridges, libraries (scratch that - that involves reading), sewer systems, clean water, defense, whatever is involved. Just keep hammering them. You'll win on every point. You won't change their minds about anything, but perhaps they'll know better than to take you on the next time.

[99Forever]

4. Have you ever actually "debated" (or should..

.. I say TRIED to debate) with a real live teabagger? Doesn't sound like it. They are impervious to facts and merely get louder when you shoot them down.

Personally, I've found your #4 placed as #1 to be the best strategy. But that's just me.

[sadbear]

5. I just tell them if they want to make shit up...

then there's nothing we can talk about. Then straight to #4.

[KurtNYC]

6. "a liberal talk show" -- there IS such a thing?

My suggested strategy:

1. Use your time to make your points -- do not repeat their points in some kind of refutation.

2. Stay on offense

3. Ask for one of those little clocks they use for speed chess. Demand equal time.

[lpbk2713]

7. Tell them "Faux" is not "news"

It's the propaganda arm of the GOP.

[reformist2]

8. Unless you have the power to un-brainwash, it's best to just walk away.

[JoePhilly]

9. I make fun of them ... publicly.

I have a very old friend who has gone all tea bagger and he regularly sends out crazy emails to me, and a bunch of our other old friends.

I take his email apart bit by bit and destroy it with as much mocking and humor as I can come up with.

In one of these, he said Obama was turning American into the Soviet Union. I pointed out that the Soviet Union hasn't existed for decades, and that perhaps he should pick some other scary country that still exists, just to give his talking point some credibility.

During the GOP Primaries ... he was a Perry fan, so I asked him whether he thought Romney or Perry had the most Reaganesque hair. I continued by saying that I thought having hair like Reagan's could be an important deciding factor for many on the right.

He usually fights back with at least one response ... and because I love this stuff, I crush that one too. Then he stops sending out this nonsense for a week or two, until he get a new talking point. Then it starts over.

Importantly, I know I'm not going to change his mind. That's not my goal. I know our other friends read our exchanges. A few of them have responded to me in private emails, telling me to keep it up, or that they learn something from what I say to him.

So that's my approach ... mock them publicly, so that others see it and maybe learn something.

[Xyzse]

10. Sorry...

Can't do that with my mother.
My siblings are further to the left of me however...

So, it's only her and her sisters that are like that...

I blame their religion being co-opted.