• @[email protected]
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    7 months ago

    The problem is that even if you make the best argument ever, it’s still playing chess with a pigeon. And to a non-trivial number of people, shitting on the board is a compelling argument. So the balance is changing some number of minds vs the number of people that found the nonsense to be valid.

    Better to not give them the space. They have their own platforms so there’s nothing wrong with having standards for your own.

    • @[email protected]
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      07 months ago

      I draw a very clear line between the shitting pigeons, and the people that fall for their bullshit, I guess. I want to talk to those people falling for it. I’m willing to deal with pigeons if absolutely necessary I suppose, if they have to come with the territory.

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        Problem is you only have the pigeon to speak to. Everything else is people listening. Online chat has a number of flaws, one being that you can’t interact directly with your real audience and you can’t adjust to what they are thinking and be compelling, because you have no feedback.

        The only way to go about your intended crusade that doesn’t just expand the range in which the pigeon shits is to go to their spaces, and they just ban good faith arguments such as yours. Better effort is put to real people, not the faceless masses of the internet.

        • @[email protected]
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          17 months ago

          I think this is a fairly common misconception actually, that stems from the natural difficulty of determining intentions on here. Essentially, who is trolling and who isn’t? With it being so difficult, and such a new problem that currently lacks sound answers, it has become common to simply point at stupid sounding people and call them a troll.

          The error of this is that the good trolls pick their battles very carefully. If they’ve been at it for any length of time, they’ve gotten into hundreds of discussions, and can quickly feel out which ones will be productive for them, and which ones won’t.

          It’s the people they’re trying to manipulate that don’t have that skill yet that are reachable, because they’re not yet deeply into it. In many cases, they’re young teens that don’t actually want to be wrong, they’ve simply been misled. It’s fairly easy to tell, for a person with experience on that side of things, which is which though.

          But simply bundling them all together based on position is more counterproductive, as it reinforces what they’re being fed. They’re not all the same, any more than we are.

          • @[email protected]
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            17 months ago

            I feel like there are lot of assumptions being made in general for this argument. In any case, I wish you well in your efforts, hopeless as I think they may be. It’d be nice if I’m wrong.

            • @[email protected]
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              7 months ago

              You really think it’s hopeless to get through to even one? Or would that just not be worth it?

              edit: Just out of curiosity, what do you see the benefit of this space as, with keeping them all out?

              • @[email protected]
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                27 months ago

                Not that specifically. I’m more concerned that for the one you convert, two go the other way. Obviously, it’s impossible to know the real number so it very well could be me being pessimistic and overcautious.

                Yeah, it’s hard to define that one. Enter the paradox of tolerance (which is not a paradox, but I digress). Excluding them risks an echo chamber, welcoming them invites a general degradation of the space (see: literally every conservative space that devolves into rabid negativity). I think that it’s less about exclusion and more about a standard. Along the lines of “you can like Trump, but if you’re going to argue, do it in good faith or get out”. Stupid nuance, making things hard…