Weaponized Ignorance
Why fighting back against ‘bad faith’ arguments on Social Media can be dangerous.
We’re living in a frustrating time. Regardless of your political perspectives, if you use social media (especially the often-toxic social media giant: Twitter) you’ve undoubtedly run into someone who seems… unaware of reality, to put things as delicately as I can fathom. And, naturally, in these situations we find ourselves hoping to help these ill-informed individuals better comprehend whatever situation.
And so, we begin a debate, an argument, a dance as old as politics itself…
They say; “CRT is evil and shouldn’t be taught in my child’s kindergarten class!”
You say; “Critical Race Theory is only taught in Universities and all it really is, is a more in-depth look at systemic racism, civil rights, and how law, social and political movements, and even the media shape our concept of race and ethnicity.
They say; “You’re wrong! They’re teaching it to children in elementary and high school RIGHT NOW!”
You say; “No, they’re teaching the same stuff they’ve taught for decades in elementary and high school. They teach the very basics to the younger kids. They teach that racism is wrong, that slavery was a terrible time in American history, and that figures such as MLK Jr. and Rosa Parks existed and took a stand against racism in the United States.”
They continue to dig in their heels and huff and puff so you bring out links to articles only for them to call those links ‘liberal bullshit’.
It continues like this, going on and on until tempers run thin, and eventually, someone reaches for the block button. The vast majority of the time the stubbornly ignorant individual who got blocked will consider the block a badge of honor, crowing to their friends about how they made the ‘disgusting liberal’ run away and shut down. On the off chance they choose to block the person desperately attempting to educate them instead, they will preen and strut about, reassuring themselves that they did it because you’re not worth their time and effort anyway.
However, that is not the only way this can end. No, there is a small chance that one of either party will lose their temper… And this, I’ve found, is often the very point of such interactions. Because, you see, once someone loses their temper and calls their opponent something unpleasant or otherwise tosses insults, they are now giving that individual the opportunity to report them to the Social Media Admin Gods. And once that’s happened, there’s a small but not insignificant possibility that once reported, they will be locked out of their account temporarily… or permanently.
I firmly believe this is the goal of all willfully ignorant, bad-faith ‘debate bros’ on social media. Not only for the clout of being able to gush to their troll buddies that they got some random ‘libtard’ banned from their social media platform of choice but the knowledge that that’s one voice they’ve managed to stamp out from a public forum.
This works in reverse as well, though I’ve found the Leftist/Liberal side of the equation to be a bit less prone to crowing and preening unless the individual taken down is exceedingly troublesome.
So, this leaves us with a few things to consider…
Is it genuinely possible to change someone’s mind on social media?
Personally, I believe that it is entirely possible to change someone’s mind on social media, yes. However, it’s usually fairly easy to tell whether that’s even a remote possibility or not within the first few posts. Faster if you’re willing to bring genuine articles into the conversation that back your side of things fairly early on. Every time someone brushes off an article with ridiculous logic like “Wikipedia can’t possibly be valid because human beings contribute to it” or “The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention’s statement saying that the anti-trans movement is genuinely a Genocide and needs to be stopped doesn’t count because simply by saying that proves they’re tainted by the ‘transgenderism cult’” the likelihood of their being open-minded shrinks by massive degrees. It’s also very important to look for dog whistles related to their cause because the more they lean on those dog whistles the deeper they’re embedded within the beliefs of their hate movements.
How can I avoid getting reported and locked out or banned from my account?
This one’s pretty easy and also incredibly challenging — Don’t lose your temper. Don’t be directly insulting. Don’t start slinging around profanity and nasty names. Or at least, don’t do these things without being incredibly careful. You’re a lot more likely to be at risk of losing your account because you snapped and called someone with obvious Nazi ideals a disgusting scum-sucking Nazi than you are if you called them a bigoted cabbage brain… This sounds ridiculous, I know, but remember that all the algorithm that scans through reported posts care about are the scary, naughty words. It doesn’t care how accurate they are or how you just spent 3 hours desperately trying to explain something as simple as bodily autonomy to a militant troll that believes that everyone with a uterus should be forced to have babies regardless of the risk or circumstance until you finally got so frustrated that you called them a piece of shit excuse for a human being.
Good ways to avoid getting so exasperated that you snap are:
- Taking frequent breaks.
- Trying to have a sense of humor about things.
- Not getting involved in the first place.
Is getting into debates on social media even worth it?
This is… a challenging question. On one hand, it’s easy to say they’re not worth anything because focusing all your efforts on one individual who is deadset against your views (and sometimes even your very existence) is exhausting and has been proven to be damaging to a person’s mental health. On the other, it’s possible they might prove open-minded. Or their involvement in the debate/the debate itself might cause other people to take notice (on an open forum) and those people might prove open-minded enough to genuinely hear you out or, at the very least, recognize that the person you’re debating against is doing so in bad faith.
There’s also the belief some people have of ‘tanking’ trolls. This is the act of intentionally putting yourself in the path of a rampaging social media troll so that their attention and hate land squarely on you instead of being directed at more vulnerable parties.
I, personally, feel like ‘tanking’ doesn’t really do much good as it’s not abnormal for people to be capable of fielding several interactions on social media (especially Twitter) at once. Though some chaotic personality types do enjoy ‘tanking’ trolls for their own entertainment or to help showcase the depth of stupidity a particularly nasty troll has whilst gaining proof of their trollish nature in the hopes that they eventually out themselves as Nazis or bigots of some other fashion. Once that information is collected in a tangible and provable form via social media posts it can be used against the troll, usually by outing the troll as such to friends, family members, and employers. This may sound brutal but, personally, I don’t believe that anyone who believes that People of Color shouldn't be allowed Human Rights, Trans people shouldn’t be allowed to exist, or people with uteruses shouldn’t be allowed to control what happens to their own bodies, should be allowed to go about their lives with zero repercussions for their hateful beliefs… But I do understand not everyone holds this belief.. for some reason.
In closing,
We, as human beings, seem to be wired to have faith in other human beings. When we see someone with a ‘bad take’, it’s easy to assume they just aren’t educated on the topic and that we should attempt to educate them. This is not a terrible thing. This is, in my opinion, a wonderful desire, and one that should be a driving force for us all. The more people understand the truth of reality, the better. However, in the world of Social Media, where one wrong turn of phrase can lose you your entire platform and the space is positively teeming with hateful individuals who find it particularly entertaining to drive well-meaning people out of their minds with frustration, it’s best to tread carefully.
Be safe out there, folks.
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