"when someone calls a statement 'x-ist,' they're also implicitly saying that this is the end of the discussion."
This thesis is the real "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". I can respect that it applies truthfully to many would-be SJWs, and the labels are indeed used to end conversations. However, meaningfully calling something racist, sexist, etc. is a start of a process, not an end. This meaningful discussion (and, much more frequently, reflection) is too often precluded when one party is too defensive to look honestly, openly, and beyond themselves, at their own biases.
So you let people control your life by letting them intelligently split interest groups by race and gender so that you can't effectively fight a class war? Bravo, you really fell for it.
The challenge I have when someone calls something racist or sexist, or even good or evil or beautiful or ugly, is that a person seems to be taking how they feel about a thing and labeling that thing as if everyone feels the same way with regards to that thing, which I think is rarely if ever true.
Which can lead to this:
Person 1: That thing is beautiful.
Person 2: No it's not beautiful.
Person 1: Yes, it is beautiful.
Person 2: No, it is not beautiful!
or slightly better, this:
Person 1: For me, that thing is beautiful.
Person 2: Well, for me, that thing is not beautiful.
Person 1: Why don't you find that thing beautiful??
Person 2: I just don't see it as beautiful.
or much better, this:
Person 1: I feel so much joy when I see that thing.
Person 2: I don't feel joy, I actually feel disgust.
Person 1: I'm confused, why do you feel disgust when you see that thing?
Person 2: It reminds me of this one thing that caused me a lot of pain before.
So while yes, I don't think labeling something as universally X necessarily ends the conversation, I think it can lead people to a binary debate about universals instead of open up the conversation for people to share their own experiences and more personal perspectives.
This thesis is the real "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". I can respect that it applies truthfully to many would-be SJWs, and the labels are indeed used to end conversations. However, meaningfully calling something racist, sexist, etc. is a start of a process, not an end. This meaningful discussion (and, much more frequently, reflection) is too often precluded when one party is too defensive to look honestly, openly, and beyond themselves, at their own biases.