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If I ignore/block them, it allows them to continue unchallenged. I hate getting into it with them, since they are a baseline idiot.

I guess that's it. I saw a person with a 6 month account spouting garbage, was gonna block but thought perhaps that wasn't morally responsible. Wondering what the options were.

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[-] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 123 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

i find this very satisfying: gently disagreeing with them via a short single positive message like "gay people do deserve respect", then letting them throw a very lengthy, time-invested tantrum before gently and completely disagreeing with their comment with another short sentence, over and over until they get tired.

i find that both very funny and I'm putting out positive messages that negate their bigotry without too much time or effort.

that's just if you have the time and inclination to engage, you aren't morally obligated to subject yourself to abusive behavior.

if it's real bad, they're probably violating a rule, and reporting them will get them banned

[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 week ago
[-] Seleni@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

I’m going to post this idea by agent_nycto, because it’s another good way to deal with them, especially if you run into them IRL:

I don't think you should be quiet, it makes them feel like everyone is agreeing with them and makes everyone miserable. Time to introduce you to my favorite game to play with conservatives, Politics Judo!

So you hear them rant about a thing. Some dumbass talking point. Let's use gun control. It's pretty easy to know in advance what the talking points are since they never shut up and parrot the same problem and solution over and over. "Shouldn't take guns, it's a mental problem not a gun problem".

Things are basically boiled down to a problem and a solution. A lot of people try to convince people that the problem isn't what people think it is, and that's hard to do. Even if they are just misinformed, it feels like trying to dismiss their fears.

So what you do is you agree with the problem, then use lefty talking points as the solution.

"Oh yeah, gun violence is pretty bad! And I love the Constitution, we shouldn't mess with that!" (Use small words and also throw in some patriotism, makes them feel like you're on their side. You want to sound like a right wing media con artist) "so instead of taking guns away, we should instead start having more, free, mental health care in this country. Since it's a mental health problem and these people are crazy, that is the solution that makes the most sense!" (Don't try to get them to agree to your solution, just state it as the obvious one)

It becomes weaponized cognitive dissonance. Their brains fry because you said the things you should to agree with them, flagged yourself as an ally, but then said the thing they were told is the bad and shouldn't want.

If they try to argue with your solution, rinse and repeat to a different talking point. "Oh yeah it might cost more, and we shouldn't have to pay more for it, so we should get the rich people who are screwing average hard working Americans over by not paying taxes to do that. We should shut down tax loopholes and increase funding to the IRS so they can go after them instead of the little guy"

Always sound like you're agreeing with them, but giving solutions that they disagree with that seem to be off topic but are related.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

A good thing about this approach is you're not wasting your time (much). It doesn't matter if they're trolling for attention or entertainment if you remain passive/neutral and give them so little to work with.

Imagine instead giving them an originally-written 200 word argument and then they just reply "didnt read" - wasted your time on a bad faith prank. (that said - perhaps your audience isn't the troll, but rather, the lurkers. I would only consider putting in effort if the comment isn't being downvoted to the bottom holding an anchor)

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 37 points 1 week ago

Did you report this person? Racists are usually quickly dispensed with, because if they’re allowed to continue unchallenged then this will become a Nazi bar.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

For sure, it's great to be in communities like ours and theirs where staff actually boot them all out, and it's also useful to know tactics for treating those people if they're in places which idealistically believe in free speech more than saving lives and stuff. Luckily I can't think of any active instances which don't have basic anti-bigotry rules, but it's entirely possible for one to federate and not earn a full-instance ban, at least from the more liberal instances. I don't think it's enough to say 'skill issue don't use a bad instance', for example Wolfballs remained in the scene for a while until they were finally considered too rabid for most instances to tolerate.

[-] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago

You're not gonna change their mind.

You'd be better spending your time breaking a brick wall with your skull.

Fuck em. Block em.

[-] decended_being@midwest.social 23 points 1 week ago

Sometimes, it's not about changing their mind, but influencing the many others who are less certain in their beliefs who are just reading along.

[-] LinkOpensChest_wav 11 points 1 week ago

In that case, it's better to just make a top-level comment that's far more likely to be read than a response 4 replies deep in an insufferable debate. You don't continue the chess game for the sake of spectators once the pigeon has shat all over the board and knocked the pieces on the ground repeatedly. They're just wasting your time at that point, which for most of them is their only goal in the first place.

[-] LinkOpensChest_wav 3 points 1 week ago

Also, people vastly overestimate how many people are actually going to read an argument between two online people. Only the most chronically online of redditors read that shit. Most people find it very off-putting, and you actually risk losing credibility if you continue to engage. (Said as someone who has very much and repeatedly made the error of continuing to engage.)

[-] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

If someone can be convinced into racism and hatred they were predisposed to assholery anyway.

Fair though.

Suppose I am too jaded to entertain them anymore. Can only hear so much before entertaining the nonsense wears on my mental.

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[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 28 points 1 week ago

I'm here for entertainment, as I assume most people are. If seeing that sort of rhetoric is a negative to you, block it. Marie Kondo your online life and yeet anything out the window that doesn't spark joy. Put your anti-MAGA efforts towards improving your IRL community where you don't have to futilely battle pseudonymous trolls.

[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

But "all that is required for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing?" Or something?

[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That's why I said this part

Put your anti-MAGA efforts towards improving your IRL community where you don't have to futilely battle pseudonymous trolls.

Edit: that was a little blunt. To elaborate, I don't engage everyone I see in the grocery store wearing a MAGA hat. I don't knock on the door of everyone flying a Trump flag. I don't engage the white nationalist ass hat spouting off in the bar. We pick our battles based on many factors, including personal safety and well being. Find a way to help that actually does something and makes you feel good about it.

[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

You’ve actually found right leaning people on Lemmie? I thought they were either shoved out, bullied out or pushed out or just given up and left and went somewhere else.

[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

More of a white-supremist/anti-LGBTQ/pro-Israel mashup.

But left-leaning, so they got that going for them.

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[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Report their comments, most instances will ban them unless they comment on a Nazi instance in which case good riddance.

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago

If its a nazi instance, ask your admin to defederate.

[-] RymrgandsDaughter@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Call them a dumbass bitch idiot

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

I tend to not reply because that will just draw more attention to them. I will post a separate top level comment rebutting their statements without referring to them.

[-] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

That's a good strategy, thanks.

[-] r0ertel@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

There's a lot of other good suggestions here, so I'll just ask, what outcome are you hoping to achieve?

[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago
[-] r0ertel@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

If that's the case, I'd recommend treating them like spam: reply and you'll get a lot more.

Mostly, it's a huge emotional and time investment if you want to change someone's behavior and from what I gather, it's a one on one type of thing and really hard. If you want to stop them from interacting negatively with others, your best action would be to report them.

If you're upset and want to vent, then engaging will be fun for a while, but mostly futile in terms of behaviour adjustments.

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[-] beliquititious 10 points 1 week ago

Don't feed the trolls. If you find a bigot willing to have a good faith debate, maybe, but there is no reasoning with cult members. They have to want to change.

[-] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago

When Lemmy first got popular and all debates happened and such, I kept debating politely while they kept bashing, insulting and all that. I’m over that.

When I see such opinions now, I block them. They are seriously not worth my time, energy and effort. Let them wallow in their misery.

They won’t realize it but everything bad they hope happening to others will certainly bite them back sooner or later. The moment they do not fit their (own) ideology of fascism just a tiny bit, it’ll bite them back.

[-] hangry@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago

I'd bet it is already happening to them, as they are almost always full of self hatred, bashing more and more because of it, like one runs faster and faster away from a car (I'm bad at metaphors).

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[-] Skanky@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Where are you encountering these types of conversations on Lemmy? I haven't hardly noticed any sort of debates or conversations like that here. I just figured most conservatives just avoid this place either because they are keeping to their own echo chambers or aren't smart enough to figure out how Lemmy works

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[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This is really rare on Lemmy, but a direct logical rebuttal is not the right answer. That's like trying to force your way out of a finger trap. They have no obligation to be constrained by logic themselves, and since just giving the appearance of it is easy they'll come out looking decent on a fast, casual read.

Sending pigpoopballs is also not the best answer, since that makes them look persecuted, and blocking them just stops you from downvoting. Something in between works best.

Here's an example I remember because it did work spectacularly well: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/23469562/14918633

OP didn't know anything about the science or the history, and was obviously going off of their shitty Facebook feed. So I sidestep a bit, supplied new facts about issues they hadn't heard of a bit, and set them up to have to talk about several things they definitely do but wouldn't admit to (not reading, homophobia, and moving on when they start to lose). Boom, feigned medical emergency.

Edit: And importantly, in the actual typical Lemmy case, be nice and listen to other viewpoints. If you try this kind of approach with someone who's making a good faith effort you're the asshole and will look like it.

Ignore them, then vote accordingly. Nothing you or I say will have any effect

[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago

Generally, my tactic is to not engage directly, but address the rest of the audience, essentially pointing at the subject and mocking him ("Can you believe this MAGA Traitor?..."). When he tries to respond, again ignore him, and just point and laugh.

They get really frustrated being made fun of, without having the satisfaction of creating liberal outrage.

[-] tfm@europe.pub 6 points 1 week ago

Report them, block them.

[-] shaggyb@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Publicly denounce them, then block them.

Reinforces to the public at large that they are unacceptable, and removes their agency to engage you.

[-] Draupnir@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You may feel that they go unapposed and therefore you should be a countering force, but really your efforts are moot. People have their beliefs that won’t be changed online, at least not from some internet stranger. You can make the best arguments in the world and the opposition will simply ignore your point, move the goalposts, and implement the next logical fallacy to keep proving you “wrong” or “an idiot”.

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[-] rational_lib@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Up to you? I used to hang out on a WN part of reddit back when that was allowed and debate people but that's not a thing anymore. The problem is you have utterly no idea if you're getting through to anyone. I do feel like people had to back off their angry racial ideas and adopt a softer "racial zoo" argument that made it seem like all they wanted was to preserve racial diversity rather than eliminate any particular race. I mean at times I wonder if they were looking in the mirror going "is that really why I have this swastika tattoo?" but I have no idea.

I do think the far right cannot survive much scrutiny of its ideas because they are very irrational, but to be honest the left has done a terrible job pointing this out. I know many people even on the moderate right feel like there's a grain of truth to racism that they'll admit in private with other white people, but then once you confront racism and question common assumptions about race* all that falls apart. Many attack racism as a moral failing and that doesn't work because it makes it sound like the truth is being suppressed for moral reasons.

*The most pernicious being the idea that a person can have a single race on a fundamental level that isn't up for debate

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

WN/neo-nazi communities are classic candidates for bad faith ""debating"". I recall a video interviewing former WNs, one was a WN forum moderator who openly said they didn't believe half the things they were saying, like Great Replacement theory. Fascists (incl. Nazis) could not care less about democracy and liberalist ideology, they treat the liberalist expectation of free speech as a weakness to exploit - they'll gladly hide behind cops and claim to be censored until they have the power to control cops and own social platforms.

Jean-Paul Sartre hit the nail on the head in their 1946 essay criticizing the antisemites:

"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past."

See also: The Alt-Right Playbook: The Card Says Moops

[-] rational_lib@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I agree but the goal should be not to win a debate, but use their debate platform to slip some woke mind virus into their drink. I always liked to ask very simple questions that they thought they knew the answer to already and make them defend their inevitably irrational answers. For example I used to ask what race is Mariah Carey, because it's a question everyone seems to have a different strong opinion on that can't withstand much questioning. The goal being to make them realize on their own that race is a social construct. Whether that ever worked with anyone I don't know.

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

i block those fools, and the community in conservatives, some of them are bots too. theres a reason they are here, banned from reddit for the same thing.

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Open hostility. Anywhere nazis are welcome, no one else is.

blocking/not blocking doesnt 'allow' them anything cept maybe free rent in your brain... doesnt affect them at all.

i tend to ignore them. my blocklist is very small

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[-] HungryJerboa@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Doxx them.

What, that isn't allowed? Well neither is white supremacist hate speech. Fuck that trash.

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[-] conicalscientist@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Fight fire with fire. Assume their gender. 🙂

[-] rivan@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago

Reply to their remark with a warning for other users then block them.

[-] Hazelnutcookiez 2 points 1 week ago

Block users and instances is the only way.

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this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
117 points (100.0% liked)

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