Quenby on Nostr: Bad faith actors try to control conversations by derailing them. They have a ton of ...

Bad faith actors try to control conversations by derailing them.

They have a ton of tactics and this post isn't comprehensive.

Here are a few I've seen today on my afternoon break scrolling this feed.

- false dichotomy (narrowing the focus to 2 options even when they are not the only two options)

- straw men (arguing against something nobody said because it's easier than really engaging in actual discussion)

- changing the subject/whataboutism (if they can't engage on what you're talking about they will try to shortcut you to focus on another issue)

- equivocation (using ambiguity to make two or more disparate situations to seem comparable)

- context free takes (purposefully ignoring details that are important to understanding the situation, they will remove all context from a situation to reduce it to something they can argue against, to them nothing is racist, sexist, or wrong because if they remove enough facts from the situation they can spin it as "ok")

-making false claims (they lie, a lot, and they do it without shame or apology and will return to the lie over and over even after they have been shown it's not true)

hyperbolic nonsense (they are all or nothing, if you make a claim that a thing happened one time they will insist you said it ALWAYS happens every time and then argue that because it didn't happen in one instance it never did )

shifting goalposts (they will make a claim and when it is proven false, they will shift to another claim without admitting they were wrong on the first one, they will conflate your inability to refute a deluge of other claims (all bogus) with your inability to refute any of them and will continue to repeat all the false claims as if they were not refuted at all)

gish-galloping (when cornered they will begin to post links repeatedly even if they refute their own claims, even if they don't have ANYTHING to do with what you're talking about. 10-20 links per one comment of yours, just an avalanche of misinformation or information, hoping you will waste time actually clicking on them and they will claim victory)

refusal to answer direct questions (they will NEVER answer a direct question, they will either shift goal posts, change the subject, or ask you a question)

dismissal without reason (if they are unable to refute any of your points or prove their claim they will eventually resort to stating you believe the "narrative" you want to, and then begin in on character assassination by calling you things like "a shill" or "a libtard" or "a sheep")

My advice is to avoid engaging directly with these people at all. They are playing a game and people who are witnessing it are not equipped to pick up on it and tend to side with whoever seems most aggressive. It's not that you can't refute their claims, feel free, just ignore them when they start freaking out and doing all this.

If they start it on your page block them. They will throw a huge fit about censorship and free speech and echo chambers and safe spaces, but you can feel free to ignore that because you're not hurting someone by refusing to listen to hateful claptrap. You're just not.

They don't have anything useful to say anyway, they are only there to derail actual conversations by using the tactics listed above and as soon as they employ any it's best to shut it down if you can. It goes nowhere and it is actually not a useful conversation and will never be one.