It does not matter at all who the person asking the question is, how old they are, or whether they’re asking in good faith or not. You answer the question for the sake of the audience who will read it. Answering the question is an opportunity to demonstrate understanding, inclusiveness, and compassion. Even if you suspect that the person asking is doing so in bad faith, there is no downside to responding as if they were doing so in good faith, whereas attacking them for asking the question is all downside.
If you’re feeling frustrated and suspicious and you don’t have the patience for it in the moment, then do not engage. You’ll only do harm, to yourself, to them, and to anyone else who reads the discussion.
If it’s clearly bad faith, you report and remove it. It doesn’t actually benefit anyone to discuss with people who are using the question format to spread fascist conspiracy myths. Some posts are very blatant about it.
It is always beneficial because by doing so those observers who may be getting pulled into the fascist sphere see people that they normally get told demonize them trying to be reasonable and engaging in good faith were the side trying to “show them the light” is not. Sometimes thats all it takes to get people to reevaluate what they are engaging with and break the echochamber walls a bit. Remember you arent just discussing in isolation there are also the observers who you can aid as well. If those getting sucked into those spheres constantly get told people silence these ideas because progressives cant argue against them what do you think you do to the observers who see those posts getting removed without dialog? They start getting confirmation bias and pulled into those spheres even faster. Its the same reason certain religions send people door to door to spread the word of God, the point is to have those doing the outreach feel ostracized by the world so they become more ingrained into this group that “actually loves” them and is trying to act in “good faith” but is constantly shuned by the outside world. By just not engaging/answering questions or removing those posts you are doing exactly what they want you to do as it gives them ammo to feed their narrative of being persecuted.
I would say if you think you can tell someone is acting in bad faith. Call them out on that and explain clearly why it’s bad faith. You can just ignore any response after that but I think it’s extremely helpful to future readers if you can make them more aware of the tactics people making bad faith arguments use.
As op said. If you don’t have the energy or desire to make a response it’s more than ok to not engage of course. I would not want to wish arguing with people online against your will on my worst enemy.
It does not matter at all who the person asking the question is, how old they are, or whether they’re asking in good faith or not. You answer the question for the sake of the audience who will read it. Answering the question is an opportunity to demonstrate understanding, inclusiveness, and compassion. Even if you suspect that the person asking is doing so in bad faith, there is no downside to responding as if they were doing so in good faith, whereas attacking them for asking the question is all downside.
If you’re feeling frustrated and suspicious and you don’t have the patience for it in the moment, then do not engage. You’ll only do harm, to yourself, to them, and to anyone else who reads the discussion.
If it’s clearly bad faith, you report and remove it. It doesn’t actually benefit anyone to discuss with people who are using the question format to spread fascist conspiracy myths. Some posts are very blatant about it.
It is always beneficial because by doing so those observers who may be getting pulled into the fascist sphere see people that they normally get told demonize them trying to be reasonable and engaging in good faith were the side trying to “show them the light” is not. Sometimes thats all it takes to get people to reevaluate what they are engaging with and break the echochamber walls a bit. Remember you arent just discussing in isolation there are also the observers who you can aid as well. If those getting sucked into those spheres constantly get told people silence these ideas because progressives cant argue against them what do you think you do to the observers who see those posts getting removed without dialog? They start getting confirmation bias and pulled into those spheres even faster. Its the same reason certain religions send people door to door to spread the word of God, the point is to have those doing the outreach feel ostracized by the world so they become more ingrained into this group that “actually loves” them and is trying to act in “good faith” but is constantly shuned by the outside world. By just not engaging/answering questions or removing those posts you are doing exactly what they want you to do as it gives them ammo to feed their narrative of being persecuted.
I would say if you think you can tell someone is acting in bad faith. Call them out on that and explain clearly why it’s bad faith. You can just ignore any response after that but I think it’s extremely helpful to future readers if you can make them more aware of the tactics people making bad faith arguments use.
As op said. If you don’t have the energy or desire to make a response it’s more than ok to not engage of course. I would not want to wish arguing with people online against your will on my worst enemy.