Mastodawn

🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)

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.

#ReplyGuys #Concern #Trolling #Change

[witchzard]Jan 11

people_hugging_purple

Gwyn Ciesla Jan 11

@alice thank you. All of this.

diana 🏳️‍⚧️🦋🌱Jan 11

If a reply-guy and an AI bot were in the same room together, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

Andrew Bartlett Jan 11

@dianea @alice Now in a decade we will wonder which trained which... ;-)

@abartlet @dianea @alice *AC/DC's "Who Made Who" starts to play in the background*

廃墟猫 🐈🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛Jan 12

edmon graham Jan 20

@dianea @alice one of the most common troll tactics right now is to use LLMs to do standard lib reply guy stuff, Bluesky is being hammered by it right now

Tiny Gamer Alec Jan 11

God, those guys are the WORST. I just block 'em whenever they pop up now, they don't deserve my time or attention. Let them scream into the void, maybe the void will give a shit about their opinion.

⁂iwein⁂Jan 13

@TinyGamerTris
There's a lot of these guys, and the more privileged we are the more often we are invited to become one.

It's much easier to drive a Tesla or RAM and go "fuck you all, I worked hard for this" than to own up to the unfairness of privilege. Being that jerk without hating oneself requires a critical mass of agreement from the similarly ✌️fortunate✌️.

You're free to block of course, but this movement needs to be resisted actively imho. That's what I'll do.

Tony 💉x9 🇦🇺Jan 11

@alice When you take action, their inaction appears as compliance and complicity by comparison. 🤷‍♂️

sidereal Jan 11

@kongakong @alice Yep, this is it. They have to use some kind of thought-terminating cliche to restore balance to their universe.

Jargoggles Jan 14

@sidereal @kongakong @alice
See also: people who get unreasonably mad whenever someone has the audacity to ride a bike, wear a mask in public, or be vegan.

@alice Yeah, that sounds like a Bob thing to do.

Luci Scissors Jan 11

@bob_zim @alice fucking bob. Every. Time.

CyberFrog Jan 11

@alice 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

Dr Kim Foale Jan 11

@froge @alice this lives in my head rent free https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdSLx6WG/

TikTok - Make Your Day

@kim @froge @alice looks like i can't open a tik tok without the app. Oh well...

Cassandrich Jan 11

@alice I report them even if it's not actionable behavior, under the category of whatever status quo oppression it's supporting. I don't expect any immediate action, but establishing paper trail for when they eventually slip up and escalate.

Mastodon Migration Jan 11

Favorite way of dealing with this kind of stuff is to say something like: "Simply no time for this kind of nonsense." And if they persistent, block them.

They assume you owe them a reply, but you have no obligation to respond to their stupid BS.

Wizard Bear (💉x8 + 😷)Jan 11

@mastodonmigration @alice My usual approach is to look at their TL. If this is a pattern, I just block without bothering to reply. It seems like many of these "people" just want the responses. No need to support the BS.

LillyLyle/Count Melancholia Jan 11

@alice Hard agree!

recursive 🏳️‍🌈Jan 11

@alice thanks for describing that so clearly

Kyle Carpenter Jan 11

It's a Brandolini's law situation.

"The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."

Reply guy responses are the laziest form of communication, not even worth the effort of reply. Totally agreed.

Goiterzan/Amygdalai Lama Jan 11

@alice
.
"then only the bad guys will have guns."
.
- That's how it's supposed to be, you fools, shooting people is bad, it's for bad guys. Good guys are supposed to do SOMETHING ELSE 😜

Al Hatch, author Jan 12

@punishmenthurts @alice It's also wrong, being based on false premises, that there are "good guys" and "bad guys" (not true, most homicides by firearm are by family and friends), and also that gun control has no effect on the supply of guns to "bad guys" (not true, it makes getting guns for crime harder).

@alice I was half expecting that third one to go:

Alice: I'm openly queer so others know they're not alone.
Bob: If you're openly queer, then only the bad guys will be straight.

Daughter of Discord Jan 11

You: "dropping little doubt caltrops"
Bob: "You mean those ninja legos?"

Ok, I'm Bob. I just thought your wording was a really cool phrase.

tuban_muzuru Jan 11

My usual rhetoric grenade says

Do you know the characteristics of the majority of gun death victims? They're middle aged white guys committing suicide with their own handguns. Gosh, are you a middle aged white guy?

Cyrille Pontvieux Jan 11

@alice If you leave those posts in the dark instead of grunt about it, those people will have no attention… Just kidding 😆😅 I couldn't resist to imitate!

Russ Sharek Jan 11

Well said. <3

@alice fuck those guys fr

Machine Lord Zero Jan 11

@alice Fuckin' hate those guys. They don't like when I respond with "Nah." though.

Machine Lord Zero Jan 11

@alice oh and grats on deleting your FB account

@alice so familiar. I'm reminded of when I was a young art student and I told a classmate that I wanted to make art that would make people's lives better. He said 'who are you to tell people how to live?' which was not my intention at all, but it still knocked me sideways.

@artemis @alice That's weird. How does "doing things to make people's lives better" equate to "telling people how to live"? There's just no necessary connection.

@kauer @alice I know, right? Perhaps there was some sense that I was judging folk? I've forgotten the surrounding discussion as it was a long time ago, but that statement stuck.

@artemis @alice "Who are you to tell people how to live?" says guy telling you how to live.

@artemis @alice I thought people like that only existed on Twitter 🙃

umbeebmu Jan 11

@alice by the way, I don't own a gun and I just closed my Facebook/insta accounts

Cavyherd Jan 11

I misread caltrops as catpoops which: yeah. That too.

That aside, I feel like this is as an important an insight as "Unsolicited advice is criticism, always." And "Don't harsh someone's squee."

@cavyherd What does the last one mean?

Cavyherd Jan 18

If, for example, someone's going on about a show/series/franchise they love, don't respond by telling them what you don't like about it or what you think is wrong with it.

@cavyherd Ah, thank you! (Are there any other don'ts I should be aware of? I wish there was a hashtag or a bot I could follow for regular updates and reminders like this.)

Cavyherd Jan 18

You could start a hashtag! Like maybe #HowToHuman ?

I've learned much I know from Captain Awkward. Her deal is mostly interpersonal boundaries, but stuff like this gets sprinkled in, & I credit much of my ability to conduct myself in a civilized manner to her instruction. & also she's a fun read, esp when she gets angry 😂

http://captainawkward.com

CaptainAwkward.com

Don't need to be cool to be kind.

CaptainAwkward.com

That's a great idea, but I'd need to have actual advice to share on #HowToHuman if I wanted to start that. 😁
I'll work through the website first, it sounds like that's a good place for me to start my journey to humandom. 😊

Cavyherd Jan 18

Or, you could use it as a way to ask questions? Questions are good! We like questions! Questions are also incredibly powerful. I point you to @RickiTarr as an exemplar. Asks questions ranging from deep to frivolous, & nucleates the most amazing conversations.

Do note that posts have to be set to public for hashtags to work (a thing I persistently forget, but fortunately my instance has an alert that reminds me. >

Cavyherd Jan 18

& I wouldn't get fussy about what questions to ask? If you're not sure what you're asking? Say that! People are incredibly willing to help! (Sometimes too much so 😂)

Cavyherd Jan 18

Looping back to the question in your last reply: ask that! You'll get some Sturgeon percentage of dross, but there will likely be nuggets of gold in there, also.

(Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of everything is crap.")

@cavyherd I will make sure to ask you all the questions if you like them so much. :P
But I don't know what I don't know, you know? So I was thinking about a feed that gave me advice I didn't know I needed. Like the post we are under :)

Cavyherd Jan 18

Ask away! It's a lovely excuse to dish out Free Advice™, & much better for my spiritual merit than unsolicited free advice, which is a habit I've acutally had some success breaking.

That's the lovely thing about asking questions (again, referencing Ricki Tarr's threads) combined with topic drift. Stuff will come up that you would never have thought to ask. Many hands make light work, & all that. >

Cavyherd Jan 18

My only request: make it a fully public ask. One will get Reply Guys (per OP), but that's why John Mastodon gave us the block & mute buttons.

@cavyherd Is our conversation not fully public? Oh! I just checked, you're right. It's night time here, I will try to think of a question tomorrow.

Cavyherd Jan 18

"Tomorrow!
Tomorrow!
I love ya
Tomorrow!

You're always
A day
A way!"

Sorry 😂

@cavyherd I will think of a question next week. 😩

Cavyherd Jan 18

No hurry! It should be fun!

Cavyherd Jan 18

And also: if Asking Questions In Public Is Too Much, you can always ask me & then indicate that this is a question you'd be okay making public, & *I* can ask it publicly to the hashtag.

Options! There are many!

@cavyherd Fun? 🤨