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.
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