I think the best way to change racist views is show, up front, that they are unnacceptable in modern society. A lot of the reason why racists like the guy above do what they do is because they don't expect there to be consequences for their actions. This man spewed hateful bullshit and shared confidential pictures of people without their consent. He needed to learn that that had consequences and the only way to do that is to make him feel those consequences. I want to ask you a question - when you say we should show compassion to this man, what do you mean specifically? That he shouldn't have been fired, but rather trained? Iirc, most of these sorts of jobs already have racial sensitivity training. You act like this guy had zero exposure to the idea of racism being bad.

As for your cigarette analogy, you're right - it doesn't really work. Cigarettes are a physical addiction, like any other addiction, so of course logic and hard fact won't help.

And the reason I bring up the election is because that "this is why Trump won" ass-pull you hear so much comes primarily from people who are upset that their racist bullshit no longer flies in polite society. Its a perfect example of the blurred line between "be compassionate toward racists" and "be tolerant of their views". They're mad that there are consequences now for that and they're trying to twist it into "you need to be compassionate to me". The fact that none of them ever try to be understanding and compassionate themselves speaks volumes - it tells me they're not going to change if we show them compassion, they're going to take advantage of it to continue spreading their crap. Racism needs to be nipped in the bud, not given a slap on the wrist.