This is actually one of two strategies that I go to and I tend to do this one when the person comes of as sorta needy and civility-politicking or whatever. The type of person who says "Don't you realise that you're alienating people who would be on your side if you weren't so in our faces about it all the time?" These are typically the somewhat-progressive liberals.
For the conservative libs, they tend not to try and dictate strategy or civility nor try to chase after your approval. These are the people who come off as the moral majority or silent majority types and they are more stoic and more likely to make a comment about you rather than trying to engage with you in dialogue or debate. For these people, I find that they tend to get aggravated more if you give them a dismissive reply that makes them feel like a powerless chump who is ineffectually yelling down the phone at the call centre representative or at the Walmart customer service chat bot online. They get the "Your opinion has been noted" or "Thank you for your feedback" kind of responses from me and holy shit, no exaggeration, about 1/3rd of the time do these people get absolutely outraged in a reply to this sort of comment.
I have previously worked in customer service and I know how to switch on that robotic, corporate customer placation mode and if they respond in a way that I can tell they're upset I will explain to them that they are an important member of society and their feedback is very valuable to me/us before thanking them. That sort of thing. I just double down and it usually gets entertaining.
This is tangential but another tone-policing manoeuvre I love to pull is by telling people they are entitled and that they lack personal responsibility, playing the reverse card on them.
Say it's a video about a cyclist showing poor infrastructure and poor driving. When some dingdong decides to weigh in and says something like "You need to ride on the sidewalk" or some shit I respond with "Your generation is so entitled that they think even the bike lanes belong to their cars. I hate to break it to you but if you can't safely operate your vehicle when there's a cyclist nearby then you shouldn't be driving. A license is not a human right and you are not entitled to have one. The biggest problem that America faces today is the lack of personal responsibility from people like you."
There's nothing that takes the wind out of their sails like adopting their rhetoric word-for-word and turning back on them.
This is actually one of two strategies that I go to and I tend to do this one when the person comes of as sorta needy and civility-politicking or whatever. The type of person who says "Don't you realise that you're alienating people who would be on your side if you weren't so in our faces about it all the time?" These are typically the somewhat-progressive liberals.
For the conservative libs, they tend not to try and dictate strategy or civility nor try to chase after your approval. These are the people who come off as the moral majority or silent majority types and they are more stoic and more likely to make a comment about you rather than trying to engage with you in dialogue or debate. For these people, I find that they tend to get aggravated more if you give them a dismissive reply that makes them feel like a powerless chump who is ineffectually yelling down the phone at the call centre representative or at the Walmart customer service chat bot online. They get the "Your opinion has been noted" or "Thank you for your feedback" kind of responses from me and holy shit, no exaggeration, about 1/3rd of the time do these people get absolutely outraged in a reply to this sort of comment.
I have previously worked in customer service and I know how to switch on that robotic, corporate customer placation mode and if they respond in a way that I can tell they're upset I will explain to them that they are an important member of society and their feedback is very valuable to me/us before thanking them. That sort of thing. I just double down and it usually gets entertaining.
"I understand you're feeling upset right now" gets the best results
This is tangential but another tone-policing manoeuvre I love to pull is by telling people they are entitled and that they lack personal responsibility, playing the reverse card on them.
Say it's a video about a cyclist showing poor infrastructure and poor driving. When some dingdong decides to weigh in and says something like "You need to ride on the sidewalk" or some shit I respond with "Your generation is so entitled that they think even the bike lanes belong to their cars. I hate to break it to you but if you can't safely operate your vehicle when there's a cyclist nearby then you shouldn't be driving. A license is not a human right and you are not entitled to have one. The biggest problem that America faces today is the lack of personal responsibility from people like you."
There's nothing that takes the wind out of their sails like adopting their rhetoric word-for-word and turning back on them.