If I ignore/block them, it allows them to continue unchallenged. I hate getting into it with them, since they are a baseline idiot.
I guess that’s it. I saw a person with a 6 month account spouting garbage, was gonna block but thought perhaps that wasn’t morally responsible. Wondering what the options were.
Generally, my tactic is to not engage directly, but address the rest of the audience, essentially pointing at the subject and mocking him (“Can you believe this MAGA Traitor?..”). When he tries to respond, again ignore him, and just point and laugh.
They get really frustrated being made fun of, without having the satisfaction of creating liberal outrage.
Memes.
Realistically I think your options are to ignore/block, or confront them against your better judgement. Which, as you know will likely constitute going circles for hours before having to bow out because your brain is coming out of your ears. The problem with both these options is that they likely have the same outcome. However, the latter will also leave them resenting you and the rest of the “online leftists” even more than they already do. In fact, it will probably embolden them in their pursuit of radical centrism just to own the “tankies”.
That’s just my experience and observations tho…
You know, hexbear is really a fine example of what you get when the auth right tries to do a parody version of leftists.
You’re not gonna change their mind.
You’d be better spending your time breaking a brick wall with your skull.
Fuck em. Block em.
Sometimes, it’s not about changing their mind, but influencing the many others who are less certain in their beliefs who are just reading along.
In that case, it’s better to just make a top-level comment that’s far more likely to be read than a response 4 replies deep in an insufferable debate. You don’t continue the chess game for the sake of spectators once the pigeon has shat all over the board and knocked the pieces on the ground repeatedly. They’re just wasting your time at that point, which for most of them is their only goal in the first place.
Also, people vastly overestimate how many people are actually going to read an argument between two online people. Only the most chronically online of redditors read that shit. Most people find it very off-putting, and you actually risk losing credibility if you continue to engage. (Said as someone who has very much and repeatedly made the error of continuing to engage.)
If someone can be convinced into racism and hatred they were predisposed to assholery anyway.
Fair though.
Suppose I am too jaded to entertain them anymore. Can only hear so much before entertaining the nonsense wears on my mental.
how is blocking someone helping influence other people? youre the only human the block affects. its no different than ignoring them.
I think they mean not letting the ideas go unchallenged. If someone is reading through and sees a bunch of Nazis posting hate all up somewhere with no one else saying anything, they might assume that sort of behavior is just tacitly accepted and influence their perception of the community as a whole.
Yep.
Burn them for fuel in the winter.
I’m here for entertainment, as I assume most people are. If seeing that sort of rhetoric is a negative to you, block it. Marie Kondo your online life and yeet anything out the window that doesn’t spark joy. Put your anti-MAGA efforts towards improving your IRL community where you don’t have to futilely battle pseudonymous trolls.
But “all that is required for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing?” Or something?
That’s why I said this part
Put your anti-MAGA efforts towards improving your IRL community where you don’t have to futilely battle pseudonymous trolls.
Edit: that was a little blunt. To elaborate, I don’t engage everyone I see in the grocery store wearing a MAGA hat. I don’t knock on the door of everyone flying a Trump flag. I don’t engage the white nationalist ass hat spouting off in the bar. We pick our battles based on many factors, including personal safety and well being. Find a way to help that actually does something and makes you feel good about it.
Well said!
When Lemmy first got popular and all debates happened and such, I kept debating politely while they kept bashing, insulting and all that. I’m over that.
When I see such opinions now, I block them. They are seriously not worth my time, energy and effort. Let them wallow in their misery.
They won’t realize it but everything bad they hope happening to others will certainly bite them back sooner or later. The moment they do not fit their (own) ideology of fascism just a tiny bit, it’ll bite them back.
I’d bet it is already happening to them, as they are almost always full of self hatred, bashing more and more because of it, like one runs faster and faster away from a car (I’m bad at metaphors).
They won’t realize it but everything bad they hope happening to others will certainly bite them back sooner or later.
This applies to all of us. What we put out returns. It’s easy to repay hate for hate, but…a lie travels quickly while truth endures and eventually prevails. I’m not saying do not defend ourselves where necessary; but to do so with sorrow and compassion.
You may feel that they go unapposed and therefore you should be a countering force, but really your efforts are moot. People have their beliefs that won’t be changed online, at least not from some internet stranger. You can make the best arguments in the world and the opposition will simply ignore your point, move the goalposts, and implement the next logical fallacy to keep proving you “wrong” or “an idiot”.
Wow, yeah I think this was playing in my mind. You hit the nail on the head. I’ll just block the idiot.
Where are you encountering these types of conversations on Lemmy? I haven’t hardly noticed any sort of debates or conversations like that here. I just figured most conservatives just avoid this place either because they are keeping to their own echo chambers or aren’t smart enough to figure out how Lemmy works
Just turned up replying to me one day.
Track down their location
I do not have “a particular set of skills”.
Find some place… as an example, hexbear’s instance has c/slop… to drop a link to the offending user’s comment or post and whatever happens… happens.
You’ve got the option of Reporting the post/comment to the moderators. Which will require you knowing the moderation rules of the community in question to take advantage of.
Short bullet point/talking point responses. Replies with things like, “This is racist/sexist/genocide denial/etc”, then disengage. You don’t need to get into a long drawn out comment war/debat bro situation.
Make fun of them for being a goober.
My answer is that it depends on several factors. The first and least impactful thing you can do (and that’s in terms of both you and the other person) is to just block them. Next step up is that if they’re not on a big instance that you get content from regularly, just block their instance. After that, report them to your instance owner - they might get blocked from interacting with your instance. And the more heavy-duty action is to reach out to their instance owner with evidence and make your concerns known - then if they get booted, you can continue as you were; and if they don’t, block the instance.
Bang with the ban gun. get em outta here
If that’s not an option bullying is good too
Bullying them until the banhammer comes down… I slept so well last night lol
On the internet, you’re not likely to change their mind, like at all. But in person, if you can connect with someone and bring it back to family, and community, you can slowly change someone’s mind and show them that they’ve been lied too. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can be done.
On the interwebs, don’t even bother.
This topic always reminds me of this hero https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544861933/how-one-man-convinced-200-ku-klux-klan-members-to-give-up-their-robes
I want to see more people like him in this world. But I sure wouldn’t have the guts to follow his steps.
Very rarely do people like this actually want to discuss why they are the way they are. They don’t care about your opinion, and will actively react negatively to any push back. Of course, you can always block them, but there is another choice
Report them, block them.
