Arguing With Idiots on the Internet

This is a short one. Largely because I had little time to engage with this person and unlike some, he is clearly engaging in bad faith. However, this was on YouTube in relation to the Halifax pronoun issue and I encountered some fascinating sophistry. I was responding to another comment here:

The response.

Actually, this is not the point at all. It was Halifax making an issue about it while jumping on the Pride bandwagon that was the political agenda and this was clearly the point that had been made several times already. So, already my radar was twitching. I suspected that what we had was one of those people who argues in bad faith while expressing a veneer of politeness and intelligence while really engaging in rhetorical trickery. Back in the Usenet days, someone who would be referred to as a troll. Having looked at his interactions with others, I’d already detected a degree of sanctimonious smugness, so I decided to give him a little rope and see where it went.

This was merely a repeat of the comment made several times by others elsewhere. Nothing controversial here. Not so for Mr Holden. Indeed, his response was bordering on the bizarre.

This is a very subtle variant of the ad hominem. Not a direct attack, but playing the man all the same. I am simplistic, without Mr Holden’s sophisticated view and understanding of the world. This assertion proffered with zero evidence and, frankly completely unrelated to the point I made. The jump to duty of care is even more strange. Having no rational argument, the buffoon did what I’ve seen so many times before – he seeks to derail the discussion by taking it down a rabbit hole. The issue has absolutely nothing to do with an employer’s duty of care.

I couldn’t really say much more than that. I wasn’t going to let him take me down the rabbit hole. And, frankly, I was already convinced that he was being deliberately obtuse rather than stupid.

In a previous life, I was a safety practitioner and trainer, so, yes, I very much understand what a duty of care is. I also understand the concept of harm and misgendering someone causing hurty feelz doesn’t qualify. Even in my current role as a motorcycle instructor, I am acutely aware of my duty of care to my students. But Mr Holden, in his lofty place behind his computer screen knows better without a shred of evidence or information to assist him. Must be some sort of clairvoyant.

Anyway…

As I say, irrelevant – the issue is the way that Halifax behaved, having nothing to do with duty of care. Given that I was clearly dealing with an arsehole, I decided (probably wisely) to waste no further time. Trolls will spend hours wasting your time if you let them. Of course, he was unable to take my dismissal at face value and came back with another comment that remains unanswered and will continue to do so.

So he is sticking to the duty of care bollocks regardless and the evidence-free assertion that I clearly don’t understand, which I very much do. However, what is amusing is the erroneous assumption that I would be offended by someone misgendering me or getting my name wrong. I have been misgendered on a number of occasions – one of the occupational hazards of wearing my hair long. There’s usually a double-take followed by an apology. I smile and tell them it is nothing to worry about – because it isn’t. Likewise I have indeed been called Mike rather than Mark. I’ve also been called Matt fairly frequently as well. It’s not an issue. However it is usually my surname that people get wrong because it is unusual. Indeed, it’s been something that has followed me about through my life. If it’s necessary, I’ll correct it, but if not I let it slide. Not once have I ever been offended – not once. This is because I’m not a raging narcissistic crybully with skin the thickness of a mosquito wing. I have never, ever needed a name badge, so Mr Holden is talking claptrap, as he has done throughout this conversation and is objectively wrong on all counts. Twat.

9 Comments

  1. I cancelled my Guardian comment account some years ago, and my Vuukle account (for commenting on order-order.com) today. Both commenting sites were places where you could discuss ideas, but were taken over by people who relentlessly bang on the same opinion over and over, usually with a lack of charity towards others.

    Curiously Comment Is Free on the Guardian and the Vuukle commenting system seemed to become more and more arbitrary on what they would allow to be posted.

    • It’s a strange phenomenon. They home in on something completely unrelated and like a dog with a bone, won’t let go, no matter how many times it’s pointed out to them that they are not following the point under discussion. There’s a certain amount of deliberate obtuseness going on, but also something else. An inability to follow or construct a logical, evidence based argument.

  2. “I’ve also been called Matt fairly frequently as well. It’s not an issue”

    I spent most of my working life being called various nicknames. I actually enjoyed it, so much so that when a new “Manager” decided that the practice should stop I simply altered my nickname into “Mr” * ***** to spite them! And there are (former) colleagues who (to this day) don’t know my real name.

  3. Mr Longrider, what you are doing is the equivalent of trying to teach pigs to sing. And I suspect that you enjoy it.
    As do we, or at least, I.

      • For the idiots, they live in their freakshow while the rest of us occasionally stop and stare at their outlandishness. Personally, I look forward to the day when their circus leaves town for good.

  4. @LR
    Good exchange. However woke don’t do rabbit holes, it’s entirely different. Woke don’t accept facts, only Their emotion counts – the their you’re engaging with

    Sadly it’s now infiltrated every aspect of life: emotion trumps facts, logic, reality see Ukraiane, Wimbledon, Green, Lockdown, Jabs… If it virtue signals, nothing else matters

    Maybe we should adopt their tactics and tell them their words are abusive, discriminatory, facist, hurtful, offensive, racist, anti-semetic*

    btw Freak – yep

    O/T
    * anti-semetic
    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/07/03/identity-politics-is-breathing-new-life-into-anti-semitism/

    Good segment from Mark Steyn
    [>£5m, not 2 to 3]
    https://youtu.be/UM1TWo3v6mY?t=2336

    Be scared, very scared: Blair is back
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkvMs5tEgU

  5. Because of my odd accent, I sometimes get called Mark instead of Mike. This is why I always carry my inflatable fainting couch with me.

  6. One of my cherished compliments was to be called a troll on a Labour MP’s blog. Actually at the time I didn’t know what a troll was and someone very earnestly explained it to me. All I’d been doing was letting a little air into the echo chamber. :>

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