"someone is saying racist shit" is one of those situations where it's fine or good to directly call someone out i think. fuck 'em, they deserve to be miserable and yelled at. fury is miserable for everyone when it's going in every direction but when it is all pointed at one bastard? that's good. better than letting it simmer while the bastard sits there smug and continuing to say shit
i suspect that back when i participated more in "discourse" because i thought i was being helpful, i may have helped set a trend of "don't tag [or maybe don't name] people so they don't get harassment sent their way," in part because i was trying to avoid causing misery to people who didn't necessarily intend to hurt others. this stemmed from having seen how harassment mobs worked on twitter and with quote tweets, and hoping that cohost would generally be a better environment
when applied broadly or universally this technique is, i think, ultimately not helpful. racists don't deserve politeness, they deserve to be given a choice of either shutting up and fixing their shit or being run out of town on a rail
if we want to be aware of bad actors, having legible receipts helps
