Except their racism is central to their ideology as is the need for self-righteous catharsis. Which makes attempts to engage - and I've tried - worthless. Remember the town halls - any response to them was the wrong response. You cannot reason with people who knowingly abandon it for various motives. You can wait until the rational ones calm down, but it's pointless within the movement. Truth squads and others would just give them more of what they seek - something to rage at.

Their "movement" arose from a corporate PR marketing scheme - it was a former junk bond trader at CNBC who introduced and then promoted the term.

Their dynamic is more akin to pop culture fandom than actual politics. One might find various motives and interpretations within it, but just as a trekkie is defined by finding identity in being someone watching a tv show, so TeaBigots are defined by an investment in being an angry selfish mob. To persuade them otherwise is to ask them to be come an ex-member.