I wish that were true. But in these cases what is happening is that the person asking for proof follows with "Yeah, but..." into infinity.

One comment might be a joke, one might be misunderstood, one source might be incorrectly cited, but, as in the case of the Cosby rapes, once you've got 48 'misunderstandings', there's a reliable pattern.

If the person asking for a source accepts the source, then great. But in these comment threads I have seen (but not copied the links to! My poor planning!) 3 instances of people offering answering examples only to be followed by "Yeah, but..."

Apparently the Guardian isn't a 'proper newspaper' (though it is if Snowden's involved), and university statistical studies are 'dated' if they're 10 years old (really? not in the academic world...), and comments on reddit are 'misunderstood' (even if there's 50 people implying the same thing, with different wording, in different threads...).

You're welcome to keep providing proof if you have the time and patience. But I think you'll find that there's a "Yeah, but..." for everything you say.

Again, if a person has decided that racism doesn't exist unless the person is shouting epithets (unless, ironically, it's aimed at a white guy, in which case implicit racism abounds), then they aren't going to listen to me, or a statistician, or a word from the clouds above.

Why did I type this up? I guess I'm just really sad, after reading all of this, and seeing how people are so worked up that they can't cool down enough to see that, yes, there's prejudice all around us, yes, that behaviour was ugly, yes, the comments around here are ugly too... and stop trying to pretend that's it's all or nothing.

I just don't see the help in feeding trolls.

Are you a troll? Was this feeding? I hope not. I hope you see how these comments are the last in a long line of trying to answer people, and discovering through experimentation that the answers are not what they want.

True, there might be a few people out there who will change their minds. But so far, I haven't met any, as the replies to the last few of these will show.

If I don't get tired of personal attacks and downvotes, and delete the lot. That's always possible. I reddit for my own amusement. I don't like bringing pain to my fun times.

Anyway. I wish you well.