Youtube, twitter, tumblr or any website… it feels more frequent to see racism and it makes me dislike comment sections in general. I think I’m retiring having discussions on the I ternet.
I feel way calmer without trying to engage with people, but if I have to defend my humanity or basic human rights, it can destroy anyone’s mental health and I’m done with it.
Sure, there may be productive conversations once in a while, but most of the time it’s just a fight to be right at all times.
People are expected to be a pro for every subject and think they need to have an opinion about everything. Even if they are wrong, as long as they feel like they have a ‘gotcha!’, it doesn’t matter. If there is a voting system for every comment, then it’s even worse because more people who don’t know about the subject can make wrong opinions be right, which creates an echo chamber in the long run. Because if you visit the site often and you enjoy getting positive votes, then at some point you may use arguments that are well-loved by the masses of that site. You’ll start to believe in those arguments and new people believe it too.
After 20 years of experience, here are some ground rules to contribute to a world where humanity is at its worst:
• Does it technically make sense for people who don’t understand the subject? It doesn’t matter if it’s a lie or not, people want to feel smart by reading your post, not to be educated.
• Is it entertaining, like a witty snapback? You don’t even have to be on topic for this one.
• Does your opponent (because it’s always a battle) show any form of emotion at all? Because any emotion on the Internet means it’s impossible to be rational enough to hold a discussion about logic. (as if their petty ‘witty snapbacks’ isn’t the emotion of a raging toddler)
• Did your opponent make any mistakes? Like small errors in an otherwise factual replies, spelling or grammar mistakes? Also ignore that it’s ableist and that people exist whose English is their 2nd, 3rd language or something.
• Be pedantic about a very specific part of a conversation so you can derail the entire conversation and making people exhausted from talking to you.
• Speaking of exhausting, be sure to hold them accountable for not spending hours with you having a conversation. You ‘win’ because you had the last word. If you feel like you’re ‘losing’, reply as slow as possible so that they’ll move on and you still get the last word.
• Never admit to anything, even when you’re called out. Just stay stubborn and twist, backpaddle, anything to deny everything. Maybe they’ll cave in because they don’t want to talk to you anymore.
• Remove your posts when you realise that you’re wrong.
• Sources? Ignore them and just continue replying. You are here to win, not to do homework. Bonuspoints if you think that the website itself is unreliable.
• Or use sources yourself by only reading the title and if people question the source, you can ignore that because you think that showing a source means you’ve shown ‘facts’ and are done with the conversation.
• Join conversations that you know nothing about, derail the conversation by asking basic questions you could have googled. People who try to explain to you can’t have their original conversation aanymore. You will use that limited knowledge to create an argument even though you are wrong, you’ll still force yourself because you feel entitled to be in a conversation at all times.
• Were your feelings hurt in any way because of the criticism? Even if they’re critical based on what you are sharing. You feel that they’re insulting your entire being and everything you stand for. Be sure to project that pain because you think that it hurts them as much as you do. Even though you’re basically telling them that you can’t handle criticism and that you are not ready or mature enough to have that conversation in the first place.
• Don’t even use arguments, just use random comments in a conversation as if every person needs to give you a standing ovation just for participating.
• Go for the extra mile and search their history to see if they’re not perfect. Even if it’s out of context, not relevant to the conversation or how they are as a person. Bonuspoints if you find their picture and post it to them to make them feel bad for…. Existing? Be that bully, they hate you anyways.
• Send them a horrible private message and then block them so that they can’t reply back
• If you have a big platform, be sure to make a campaign against your opponents by getting everything out of context and make your followers doxx someone.
I miss having normal conversations. It can be heated sometimes, but at least you can have fun with it. Now I’m kinda over comment sections in general.