Discussing politics and other contentious sunjects online feels to me like it’s counterproductive these days and even though I try not to get suckered in, I often can’t help myself. Usually though I just end up feeling frustrated and sometimes angry at the other person either missing my points or refusing to accept them.
Thinking back to conversations I’ve had here and previously on Reddit, not only can I not remember an example of me “winning” the discussion and the other person changing their mind or conceding the point, I also cannot think of a time where my mind was changed either.
So have you ever begun a discussion online with someone with a different view point to yours and either you, or they, changed the others mind?
Not exactly, but one time way way back in the day when I was on Reddit, I was debating this far right guy on some kind of culture war issue and I told him if he was such a gigachad who was gonna get a wife and make a ton of white babies, why not do it? Get offline, delete his reddit, and go live in the real world.
He messages me, “okay” and some time later, I see he deleted his reddit account. Legit, it was gone. I felt almost proud of him in that moment. I hope he is out there living his best life and moved away from online arguing.