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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.
Report their comments, most instances will ban them unless they comment on a Nazi instance in which case good riddance.
If its a nazi instance, ask your admin to defederate.
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.
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
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)
Ooo, that's good.
Bully them. The only way to deal with a bully is to show your strength.
You know how a lot of libs like to police language? Thatβs weak and only pisses off bullies. Instead, use their language against them. For example, a decent liberal would never do this but you can do more emotional damage to a maga and make a point they would understand by calling them a βregarded fageβ (paraphrasing because that is a ban worthy insult in many places online) over and over again than you ever could by using logic against them.
You might not like it, but nut shots and low blows work better.
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.
Did you report this person? Racists are usually quickly dispensed with, because if theyβre allowed to continue unchallenged then this will become a Nazi bar.
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.
Ignore it. It is really that simple. Like what are you going to do?
Get into arguments because someone disagrees with you on the internet? LOL
Life is already short enough as it is.
Reply to their remark with a warning for other users then block them.
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.
Well said!
But "all that is required for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing?" Or something?
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.
Block users and instances is the only way.
Block em
Block user/community/instance.
Report if advocating for violence.
There's really isn't enough time to argue with everyone, and these people are probably used to being argued with, and might even take it as evidence of some big conspiracy. -- If you want to make changes in the word, there are more productive ways then arguing on obscure forums.
Block and move on. Not everyone has to have same opinion as you in a forum.
I'm not upset about someone not having the same opinion as me. But...
I don't think those are just different opinions. Maybe i'm wrong.
Agreed, those are bad things. Just making a point that not all MAGA or conservatives believe those things. And if you are online, you're not going to change their mind. So better just block and move on.
You are totally free to fight it, but it won't get you anywhere.
When Lemmy first got popular and all debates happened and such, I kept debating politely while they kept bashing, insulting and all that. Iβm 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 wonβt 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, itβll bite them back.
They wonβt realize it but everything bad they hope happening to others will certainly bite them back sooner or later.
This applies to all of us. What we put out returns. It's easy to repay hate for hate, but...a lie travels quickly while truth endures and eventually prevails. I'm not saying do not defend ourselves where necessary; but to do so with sorrow and compassion.
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).
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.
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
We have different psychologies. Ignoring is less of an option for some of us. But "out of sight, out of mind."
im not saying one is better than the other, just that your experience is not affecting other humans.
whether you block or ignore.. no one else knows what youre doing, so youre not 'influencing' anyone else.
Report them, block them.
My answer is that it depends on several factors. The first and least impactful thing you can do (and that's in terms of both you and the other person) is to just block them. Next step up is that if they're not on a big instance that you get content from regularly, just block their instance. After that, report them to your instance owner - they might get blocked from interacting with your instance. And the more heavy-duty action is to reach out to their instance owner with evidence and make your concerns known - then if they get booted, you can continue as you were; and if they don't, block the instance.
Memes.