Ask Lemmy

Sigh. That under Swedish law, it's entirely probable that Julian Assange did rape that woman (reddit fanbois are a special kind of special).

That Elon Musk is not a real-life Tony Stark, but is in fact a slightly autistic narcissist who insists on inserting himself into the public eye and has an excellent PR team (reddit fanbois are a special kind of special).

That covid is real, and is bad, and is in fact deadly; and that vaccines are good, not a government conspiracy, and may save not just your life, but the lives of your families and friends.

Probably one of those three.

I stated that in a democracy fascist, racist, neo-nazi political parties should not have the right to form, campaign or run for government because - other than the obvious reasons - they are inherently undemocratic. I also added that this is not a paradox of democracy and that claiming otherwise is apologist bullcrap trying to justify fascism, racism or other institutional, totalitarian forms of oppression.

I got death threats.

Edit: maybe this doesn't apply here since there was no arguing really? 🤔

I don't remember exactly what it was that I said that I got absolutely dog piled on and told I was wrong repeatedly but it had something to do with fire hydrants. 30+ replies telling me I was wrong and stupid and didn't know what I was talking about.

For the record, I work in water and fire hydrants are very much part of my work. But, a bunch of random people on reddit definitely know better than me. 🤷‍♀️

If lemmy counts as social media in the context of this question: In one direction it was meaningful, but all I got back was flaming and brigading. But I'm sure they are convinced I have it the wrong way around. I was calling out a tankie for being objectively wrong in their statements, and that their defense of stalinism was stupid.

Way too many people think trans people's right to exist is a debate.

The reading comprehension and overall common sense on this website is piss poor.

I struggle to recall any "meaningful" debates.

That all genocides are bad and if you deny Ukraine or the Uyghurs in China being genocides then you’re bad too.

The treatment of those with disabilities or who are just down on their luck, by the mostly apethic "I'm alright jack" public. I've had many arguments with those who thought that just because somebody needed benefits that they were milking the system.

The most disgusting and revolting thing I can read on the subject from somebody is "if I've managed to get by fine without state help and support, so can/should they"... And yes many do actually think this way, sometimes even to those who need wheelchairs or other aids.

Sometimes I've managed to convince them to care about somebody other than themleves for a change, sometimes I've caused them to go away thinking about it, and other times I've caused them to double down on their stance.

Either way, the engagements were meaningful and eye opening and I'll defend this position until the day I die because nobody has any business being that disgusting towards other human beings.

Buying a Pixel to install GrapheneOS is not the only reasonable alternative to mainstream Android.

Each person has their own threat model. My priorities will be very different from a journalist in China, a whistleblower, or even my own mom. Some are more at risk of ransomware and a device with root is risky. For myself, I'd incur that risk as a power user and would rather my phone can be backed up so I don't have to worry about it breaking. GrapheneOS devs/followers believe that security is the only thing you must ever want, nothing else matters, and everything else is irrelevant, as though Google or street thugs will come to your house and exploit your bootloader if you don't give them data voluntarily. They just don't realistically question the statements the project makes, like what threats are worth mitigating (ubiquitous tracking? Who cares, I've got security patches and a locked bootloader!) and what options they're giving up by using GrapheneOS that's about as locked-down as the average Samsung phone. The marketing game is super strong because it's hard to argue against at scale: everyone's situation is different and "don't you want to be safe?"

I would say it's mostly topics I'm not actually arguing about.

I tend to point out false statements or false assumptions. I do it regardless of the topic or my position on an issue, but usually it's taken as general opposition to whatever the person was saying. So they call me a shill or demand that I prove a ridiculous point of view they imagine I must hold. It's like only The Enemy is expected to care about the accuracy of what The Right Side says.

Probably 15 years since I had more than a 5 or so back and forths about anything. I lose interest and just stop replying.

That nun-chucks don't follow Whip physics

That historical events can be approached and assessed without contemporary extrapolations. But to boil down years of internets, including old ezboard forums, I'd say it's been over the Clean Wehrmacht theory/myth.

I used to be really into WW2 history communities and I would routinely approach things objectively and piss a bunch of nerds off who pervert history and just want to obsess over how Hitler could've won.

So I have argued far too much with people who hate Hitler just because he lost the war to Stalin. Like, primary sources would mean nothing. I'd have correspondence transcripts from commanders and diplomats, and they'd have their latest Hearts of Iron game run.

Idiots who don’t understand that vi is better then Emacs

Easily trump

Right here on Lemmy, someone argued with me for weeks that the mathematical conventions on order of operations can be proven, and that all calculators obey them. You can find calculator manuals with explicit examples that don't obey the conventions, and as a one time mathematician, his attempts at proofs are pathetic. Anyone who persists with him no matter how polite, will be faced with rudeness and condescension.

I found the guy on Mastodon where he peddles the full suite of common mathematical wrongness (he thinks 0.999... ≠ 1) and recently he tried to do an inductive proof in an "educational" thread and got completely schooled by someone else. He was unable to understand that he was wrong.

He claims to be a maths teacher, but his ability ran out at school and he's to arrogant to realise.

That women should have the ability to give informed consent at a doctor's office.

I've had to argue for decades that birth control shouldn't be held hostage until women submit to a pap smear.

It's flat out unethical to hold a prescription until a patient does an unrelated screening, no matter how good your intentions are. It'd be like doctors withholding Viagra until a guy got his prostate checked annually. Yes, it's a good idea to do cancer screening but no one should be coerced into any medical procedure against their will, especially such an intimate and invasive one. This only happens to women.

And yet you'd think I told them they should skin their new puppy alive. The amount of vitriol and even sexual harassment I got for maintaining this was mind blowing. And it was always from other women. I was told I'm a little girl, or not a "real" woman like it's some sort of twisted right of passage.

I wasn't debating that the exam doesn't save lives or that people should stop having it done, just that women should have a choice and not be coerced - that it should be treated just like colonoscopies in that it's entirely voluntary.

It hasn't been that big of an issue in recent years. But early 2010s holyshit you'd think women didn't think that they should have bodily autonomy (and a lot of this was coming from fellow pro-choicers!).

This was a thing in the southern US. I know the North half of the country wasn't as insane.

I used to go out of my way to argue with people on Facebook about vaccines and about representation of minorities in media. I liked to yell at antivaxxers and bigots

People that believe all that ghost shit on YouTube is real. It's basically boomers and religious tards with a 3rd grade education that don't understand how easy it is to edit video for the average person. They all comment "May Christ protect you" and other crap like that. While these people pump out an episode every week like clock work where they're possessed, attacked, or some other BS. Best part is when they go "we almost died" over and over, because name one person on a paranormal investigation that died that isn't an obvious natural cause.

Israel / Palestine - whatever you say, you always get attacked.

People on social media get irrationally angry when I point out that all science confirms that physical punishment of children for the purpose of behavior change or discipline is a net negative. For both the development of the child and also society as a whole. And as such, any corporeal punishment of children should be considered assault and child abuse. People will desperately defend their right to exert violence on their own children.

I honestly don't remember. I generally end convos if they are not being productive or have the chance of being productive.

The difference between socialism and social democracy and how most people actually advocate for the latter rather than the former due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what the definitions of those two things are.

Women in video games.

If it wasn't some incredibly stupid thing that is easily verifiable with a single search or trip to wikipedia, probably something to do with a video game.