What should you do if you become involved in a pointlessly vitriolic exchange on the web?
I exchange comments sometimes here and there on the net, occasionally under live videos and so on. On occasion you will bump into people who just behave like arseholes and this just happened to me.
Sometimes you may make a comment and be wrong. Other times you may be right. In the array of potential responses offered, the type that can niggle me most in an earnest conversation is the unnecessarily hostile, derisory or antagonistic response; especially one from someone who might otherwise be intelligent. I would feel very ready to concede error to a pleasant and well reasoned response, or at least to show respect if I still disagreed. If I am in error and somebody responds with ridicule, condescension and other such behaviour, it is more likely that I would wish to move away and end the conversation rather than to give any satisfaction to such an individual (not always, but sometimes). In an earnest exchange, surely any interlocutor is looking for agreement rather than to dispel opponents from the conversation.
On this occasion, I feel I made some valid points. This other individual stepped straight into calling me a liar and dishonest (another pet peeve), as well as general patronisation. In addition he was more offensive to anybody of faith than to me, calling them semi-human, a blight and various other vitriolic anti-theistic things. I became engaged in an exchange with this chap, feeling extremely frustrated at his general output, but was getting nowhere in my comments, so just stopped bothering. This chap, I believe, is reasonably intelligent, but just a bit of an arsehole.
What should you do online, when you become embroiled in such a situation? You feel the desire to respond, to make your case, to demonstrate error and it can be doubly frustrating with intelligent people, but is it worth it? Nothing will come of it and whoever it is will most likely continue to act like an arsehole... You feel like staying involved... otherwise there will be no justice here... but you know it's probably more sensible to let it lie and go elsewhere. What do you do with that temporary feeling of frustration? shake the laptop? punch the sofa? swear at the dog? return to the conversation and get into a full blown "yo momma" style showdown?
...Wait until it passes?
...this last is probably the best answer... typing this comment may just have been the therapy in a can I needed.
I exchange comments sometimes here and there on the net, occasionally under live videos and so on. On occasion you will bump into people who just behave like arseholes and this just happened to me.
Sometimes you may make a comment and be wrong. Other times you may be right. In the array of potential responses offered, the type that can niggle me most in an earnest conversation is the unnecessarily hostile, derisory or antagonistic response; especially one from someone who might otherwise be intelligent. I would feel very ready to concede error to a pleasant and well reasoned response, or at least to show respect if I still disagreed. If I am in error and somebody responds with ridicule, condescension and other such behaviour, it is more likely that I would wish to move away and end the conversation rather than to give any satisfaction to such an individual (not always, but sometimes). In an earnest exchange, surely any interlocutor is looking for agreement rather than to dispel opponents from the conversation.
On this occasion, I feel I made some valid points. This other individual stepped straight into calling me a liar and dishonest (another pet peeve), as well as general patronisation. In addition he was more offensive to anybody of faith than to me, calling them semi-human, a blight and various other vitriolic anti-theistic things. I became engaged in an exchange with this chap, feeling extremely frustrated at his general output, but was getting nowhere in my comments, so just stopped bothering. This chap, I believe, is reasonably intelligent, but just a bit of an arsehole.
What should you do online, when you become embroiled in such a situation? You feel the desire to respond, to make your case, to demonstrate error and it can be doubly frustrating with intelligent people, but is it worth it? Nothing will come of it and whoever it is will most likely continue to act like an arsehole... You feel like staying involved... otherwise there will be no justice here... but you know it's probably more sensible to let it lie and go elsewhere. What do you do with that temporary feeling of frustration? shake the laptop? punch the sofa? swear at the dog? return to the conversation and get into a full blown "yo momma" style showdown?
...Wait until it passes? ...this last is probably the best answer... typing this comment may just have been the therapy in a can I needed.
