You need to educate the right people at the right times, more than anything. I swear both this original message and most of the replies to it, like this one, speak of wild levels of inexperience in how to socialize and make people unite with you.
If you can choose between spending your energy addressing the stupid, ill-informed ideas posted by liberal Americans on Facebook or Reddit and withstanding a little public trolling, or spending your energy “educating” a vocal, prominent leftist who makes content about something they’re doing wrong or some word they’re misusing or some marginalized group they might be offending, can you guess what’s going to help the cause more?
(The really sad part here is that some people are reading this trying to weigh both options.)
It’s not exactly the sentiment I have a problem with. There are definitely people who aren’t worth engaging with and there’s a time to walk away, as someone else in this thread pointed out they do. Responding in a kind of snarky, condescending tone rather than just walking away does not help you.
Think about an online thread where this happens: Someone is making an argument, and a troll appears. They engage for a bit, but realize they aren’t going to make any progress. Walking away let’s the thread die, and people who stumble upon it in the future will likely recognize the troll for what they are and consider the argument. Responding with condescension instead makes the person appear to only be arguing for self-aggrandizement rather than to actually help or improve anything, and it can poison the argument they made before. It plays right into the troll’s hands.
You need to educate the right people at the right times, more than anything. I swear both this original message and most of the replies to it, like this one, speak of wild levels of inexperience in how to socialize and make people unite with you.
If you can choose between spending your energy addressing the stupid, ill-informed ideas posted by liberal Americans on Facebook or Reddit and withstanding a little public trolling, or spending your energy “educating” a vocal, prominent leftist who makes content about something they’re doing wrong or some word they’re misusing or some marginalized group they might be offending, can you guess what’s going to help the cause more?
(The really sad part here is that some people are reading this trying to weigh both options.)
It’s not exactly the sentiment I have a problem with. There are definitely people who aren’t worth engaging with and there’s a time to walk away, as someone else in this thread pointed out they do. Responding in a kind of snarky, condescending tone rather than just walking away does not help you.
Think about an online thread where this happens: Someone is making an argument, and a troll appears. They engage for a bit, but realize they aren’t going to make any progress. Walking away let’s the thread die, and people who stumble upon it in the future will likely recognize the troll for what they are and consider the argument. Responding with condescension instead makes the person appear to only be arguing for self-aggrandizement rather than to actually help or improve anything, and it can poison the argument they made before. It plays right into the troll’s hands.