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How do you stop arguing with people on social media?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
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Eventually you learn that its not worth it.
90% of the time, people aren't arguing in good faith. You can only hear another variant of the cosmological argument so many times before you realize that arguing is pointless
This, plus it helps to keep in mind that it's not your responsibility to educate people even if they're objectively wrong. Nor is it your responsibility to change the mind of people with garbage opinions.
When someone is argumentative, they are rarely after an actual conversation, or even a debate. They're after an interaction they can win.
They are not entitled to your engagement.
The second paragraph is the one which should be constantly highlighted. Sometimes people rather argue for the sake of arguing rather than debate the root cause. This also relates to the point of how facts and logic supposedly give clarity to conversation - which sometimes they dont, as arguing is what they may desire.
Yup. Another aspect of this is that I sometimes find myself in a conversation with someone (it's happened here on Lemmy too) about something technical. I might tell them about an approach that I might use, or my preference, mostly just making conversation, and the reply isn't conversational at all, it's argumentative and sometimes even confrontational or combative.
Luckily Lemmy allows for tagging these people so that I won't bother making conversation with these again. I usually tag these people after shutting down the "discussion" with something like "No, I will not address what you said. I was making conversation, you were after a debate that you could win. I am not interested in typing just to feed your ego, so I see no point in resuming this thread"