There's a type of reply-guy that crawls out of the woodwork when I post anything that might inspire others to take action, and they're deceptively insidious.
Regardless of the topic, they sound like this:
Alice: I don't own a gun because they're for killing and I'm not a fan of killing.
Bob: Then only the bad guys will have guns.
Alice: I deleted my Facebook account.
Bob: If the good people leave then the bad guys win.
Alice: I'm openly queer so others know they're not alone.
Bob: You'll make yourself a target.
In every instance, they defend the shitty state of things by discouraging action and change. It's a reply that is designed to support the default, the current power structure. It's a type of reply meant to de-fang movements.
I've posted about this before, but apparently it bears repeating. Fighting for something takes energy. Change takes sustained energy and momentum. These types of interactions sap energy. They're not posting anything openly disagreeable, they're just dropping little doubt caltrops, little concern anchors—making it harder to keep fighting, harder to gain momentum.
If you're about to jump into a thread and concern troll, don't. I'm fucking sick of it. The rest of us don't have the time or energy to drag your dead weight along.
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Allen Very Serious Versfeld, FediThing 🏳️🌈 and Damage Control Blog reshared this.
CyberFrog
in reply to 🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄) • • •not saying the people who often reply this way really mean it, or that they're actively malicious, often they're genuinely just misinformed or whatever
but in saying that... there is a reason the CIA writes about this in their handbooks on how to disenfranchise and squash grassroots movements, it DOES take energy and momentum to sustain positive change, and comments that offer nothing of substance while broadly discouraging action absolutely have a big impact on people and wider movements as a whole, I think this is something most people don't consider very often but it's hugely important to remember
FediThing 🏳️🌈
in reply to 🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄) • • •