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How might one co-opt bad faith methods to spread helpful, good information instead? (lemm.ee)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/22757703, but revised to try to find less individual focused ideas/responses.

In thinking on the classic Sartre quote concerning the folly of arguing with anti-Semites as if they're arguing in good faith, as well as the Swift quote regarding reasoning being unable to correct an ill opinion one didn't reason themselves into...

It's made me wonder if there might be some ways to play off of these approaches to spread beneficial information more than the harmful info they've otherwise enabled to abound. What might be some ways to pass along helpful or generally benign info without getting as caught in the weeds explaining things, continuing to allow more harmful info to flourish?

For those unfamiliar, here are the quotes in question:

“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

And: "Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired." ― Jonathan Swift.

(This second one takes on various forms.)

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago (9 children)

Since you like quotes so much, here's another one:

Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Mark Twain

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

How about:

Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I seem to recall one about not wrestling a pig because you both get covered in shit, but the pig likes it. Can't remember the exact quote though.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Edit to replace with canonical link: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/07/08/pig/

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