Ok, true. I am only recently learning of that technique.
Good point, though. I’ll update my guidance to mention sealioning and add a tip on knowing when to recognize it and quit.
I’m a believer you should always take the high road, for many reasons. Specifically, though, if you run afoul of community / instance rules, then your responses may get modded (rightfully, mind you) while the misinformation remains because it’s technically not in violation.
That’s actually a tactic I’ve seen in the wild: the troll will essentially goad someone into losing their temper and then report them. Basically the equivalent of the victim getting in trouble when fighting back against a bully at school.
I like to think of sealioning, traditional fact based refuting, and old-fashioned trolling as the rock-paper-scissors of online arguments. Facts beat trolls, sealions beat facts, trolls beat sealions.
I think this is a good point. It’s something I grapple with personally, because I’m a biochemist who is passionate about scientific communication, so “the high road” for me looks different than in many purely political discussions. I agree that there are cases when the appropriate and effective thing to do is to take the piss out of someone and not engage with their argument at all.
I have to disagree with these. Sealioning trolls run rings around us when we insist on taking the high road.
Ok, true. I am only recently learning of that technique.
Good point, though. I’ll update my guidance to mention sealioning and add a tip on knowing when to recognize it and quit.
I’m a believer you should always take the high road, for many reasons. Specifically, though, if you run afoul of community / instance rules, then your responses may get modded (rightfully, mind you) while the misinformation remains because it’s technically not in violation.
That’s actually a tactic I’ve seen in the wild: the troll will essentially goad someone into losing their temper and then report them. Basically the equivalent of the victim getting in trouble when fighting back against a bully at school.
I like to think of sealioning, traditional fact based refuting, and old-fashioned trolling as the rock-paper-scissors of online arguments. Facts beat trolls, sealions beat facts, trolls beat sealions.
I love that analogy and will probably steal it xD
I think this is a good point. It’s something I grapple with personally, because I’m a biochemist who is passionate about scientific communication, so “the high road” for me looks different than in many purely political discussions. I agree that there are cases when the appropriate and effective thing to do is to take the piss out of someone and not engage with their argument at all.