• spectre [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    It’s something that almost inspires me to hang out in more liberal spaces. In a way I wish hexbear was more welcoming to liberals, and re-educating them, instead of dunking on them immediately (some behavior is deserving of being immediately dunked, but not all), I find it very Twitter-brained (and that goes back to this site’s roots on the old sub).

    I encourage our comrades to challenge themselves and make an attempt to actually engage with liberals that aren’t totally bad-faith. Let them justify the dunk before going in on them, and also don’t paste a wall of links at them, it doesn’t count.

    • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      I don’t think we need to be welcoming to liberals. Debate doesn’t work to change anyone’s mind, and everywhere else on the internet is filled with “free speech” complainers who think their ignorant ideas have an equal right to be heard in a socialist forum.

      The intolerant approach doesn’t work on everyone, but for some people I think it does. Some people have never been told, firmly, that their views suck. It’s just one big marketplace of ideas where all views are considered sacred.

      Where I will agree is that we shouldn’t jump to a dunk on someone undeserving just to look/feel cool. Have to be able to read the room. I agree we should re-educate instead of only teasing. But that re-education doesn’t have to be respectful of liberal thought. It should be unequivocal about the righteous superiority of socialist thought, in exactly the same way as we might be unsympathetic toward more obviously wrong ideology like Nazism.

      • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        9 days ago

        Yeah don’t get me wrong, we don’t need to approach them as equals or even debate, it’s good to be firm and just tell them what’s what. Nothing more or less.

      • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.net
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        9 days ago

        I don’t think we need to be welcoming to liberals. Debate doesn’t work to change anyone’s mind, and everywhere else on the internet is filled with “free speech” complainers who think their ignorant ideas have an equal right to be heard in a socialist forum.

        “debate” is for the audience

        • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          9 days ago

          It’s only good for entertainment. I doubt anyone ever had their mind changed from watching a debate. If anything it just normalizes bad stances by crowding out the good ones (gish gallop but not necessarily intentional).

          A ton of brain cycles are wasted on the mental gymnastics required for understanding liberalism

          • SootySootySoot [any]@hexbear.net
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            9 days ago

            I can’t say it’s certainly common, but I personally, and at least a couple friends, have changed my mind on things by seeing debates.

        • TreadOnMe [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          9 days ago

          Shouting at each other on forums is not actually a debate though. Online forums ape a debate, but an actual debate requires strict moderation, a limited scope, and timed responses.

          And this is besides the point that in a debate, it isn’t usually the best idea that wins, but the best rhetorician, as has been pointed out as far back as Socrates. If anything, a forum discussion or dialogue is more informative to the average person than a debate, but those are best done in person while mildly intoxicated.

    • combat_brandonism [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      I only ever see smuglord get dunked on tbh. Earnest libs get the wall of text treatment, and most of those devolve into smuglords themselves in the replies before they get any hostility.