people have gotten into enough bad-faith arguments online that they don’t see the point in getting into discussions with people they disagree with. It’s easy for someone to suck up your time and energy
I think we'd all be better off thinking more carefully about who's reachable/persuadable and who's too far gone to bother with.
And there’s always the silent audience to be considered–even if the person you’re talking to is arguing in bad faith, you may persuade others.
Excellent, excellent point. A corollary to this -- one that also works as a counter to chuds who will just endlessly waste your time -- is to just stop responding after a few comments, when the visibility of the conversation drops way off.
Oh, I like the suggestion of keeping the visibility of the conversation in mind. That's a really solid suggestion for keeping enough hope to bother responding, while not getting sucked into an endless and pointless argument.
I also realized after I wrote my other comment that I guess I already kind of do a "stock answer" thing, when TERF-y stuff comes up. I wrote out a long thing once about how, years ago, I had some TERF thoughts, felt bad, took the time to educate myself, and learned not to be an asshole. I realized that I basically had "How to Not be a TERF," so I saved it to my computer and now I post it again when it seems like people are either trying to figure out how to talk to a TERF in their lives, or starting to lean towards being a TERF themselves. Sometimes people respond and want to talk through stuff more, and sometimes there's no response, but at least it's out there if people find it helpful.
I think we'd all be better off thinking more carefully about who's reachable/persuadable and who's too far gone to bother with.
Excellent, excellent point. A corollary to this -- one that also works as a counter to chuds who will just endlessly waste your time -- is to just stop responding after a few comments, when the visibility of the conversation drops way off.
Oh, I like the suggestion of keeping the visibility of the conversation in mind. That's a really solid suggestion for keeping enough hope to bother responding, while not getting sucked into an endless and pointless argument.
I also realized after I wrote my other comment that I guess I already kind of do a "stock answer" thing, when TERF-y stuff comes up. I wrote out a long thing once about how, years ago, I had some TERF thoughts, felt bad, took the time to educate myself, and learned not to be an asshole. I realized that I basically had "How to Not be a TERF," so I saved it to my computer and now I post it again when it seems like people are either trying to figure out how to talk to a TERF in their lives, or starting to lean towards being a TERF themselves. Sometimes people respond and want to talk through stuff more, and sometimes there's no response, but at least it's out there if people find it helpful.
"Stock answers" are a great way of at least reaching that silent audience without a ton of effort. :100-com: