Should we criticize people or the opinions they have?
In my opinion, I would criticize the opinions people have rather than the people themselves. This is because the opinion(s) they have may not have anything to do with their attitudes/personalities ands so on. For example, I despise religious terrorists but my friend thinks that though they are violent and their sense of religion is wrong, they are so devout to their religion and he admires that. I think that this is a foolish notion but I will only criticize him This is because he is a great friend and through years of friendship I know that he is not a bad person, thus I will only argue with his opinion on this particular matter and will not hate him just because of this.
An argument some would put up to this is “since the opinion came from the person himself, shouldn’t you criticize the person too?” That is very short sighted as there could be many other opinions that both of us will share and there will be some other opinions that he has which will make me respect him. In that case, should I really criticize the person? No.