August 11, 2010

• Never argue with idiocy

  I’ve prided myself on never banning anyone on this blog and never deleting anyone’s comments. I still believe in that. I believe everyone has a right to speak no matter how wrong, vile, hate filled, or repulsive their comments might be. I say let readers judge for themselves.

  Moreover, I don’t like changing the historical record. It’s far too easy for someone to delete comments in such a way as to pattern an argument so that they seem smarter or in the right. I have no interest in doing that. I can’t stand it when others on other blogs do that to me.  And I never want to be accused of doing that myself.*

  I don’t even delete the obvious spam comments. I mean those are just fun for everyone anyway.

  But just because I don’t delete comments or ban users, doesn’t mean that I will always engage with you if you comment on my blog. I believe firmly in this one overriding principle: Never waste your time arguing with idiocy.

  Don’t get me wrong. I believe comments are a great resource. You can learn a lot from the things that people say on your blog. Sometimes the readers have amazing insights. Sometimes the readers say things you meant to say in ways better than you could have ever said it.

  What’s more, sometimes innocent comment discussions can lead to lasting valuable friendships, especially when you find like minded people whose opinion you respect.

  But not all comments are created equal. Nor are all commenters worthy of an equal level of regard or consideration.

  Now there are, in my experience four kinds of comments. There’s mild statements of opinion, mild factual statements, and discussion building comments. The opinion statements I don’t usually reply to except for maybe an equally mild response. The factual statements I’ll generally feel the need to respond to only if they are clearly false or need clarification. Discussion building comments I will almost always eventually reply to unless they are wildly off topic, in which case I will wait to respond in a separate blog entry.

  And then there’s the fourth category. There’s the idiocy.

  Now not all who leave idiotic comments start off with their idiocy. Sometimes they start off with interesting discussion topics which I engage in and then the discussion quickly devolves into idiocy.

  What do I define as idiocy?  Largely it is comments that project something so utterly and obviously wrong that to take even a moment to refute it is to waste a moment too much of my life.

  Usually it goes something like this:

  Other Person:  I think X
  Me: X is not true because of A and B
  Other Person:  I still think X
  Me: Why?
  Other Person:  X has to be true because The sky is green, when you drop pens they always fly up, there is a half monkey, half unicorn cyborg living under my bed, and 1+1=29,423,177 in base 10.

  Me: …

  No really. Some things people say are really that stupid. And it’s usually not just one stupid false statement. It’s a whole stupidity story. An entire set of incoherent, irrational, blatantly false, ignorant, prejudiced and often just plain mean spirited ideas all wrapped up into one. When I read these comments it just makes me feel really tired. Like the very thought of what would be required to correct this complex web of idiocy drains me of energy and sometimes even my very will to live.

  I don’t know where they get their stupidity and at that point I’ve stopped caring. I honestly don’t even care if other people believe their stupidity. At some point people have to be responsible for knowing or at least looking up the basic truth about things on their own. It’s not like we’re living in the stone ages. We have libraries. We have schools. We have telephones. That’s not even to mention the fact that if you are reading this then you’re on the internet, the greatest repository of knowledge in human history. It can’t be the case that I should have to walk everyone through every tiny little obvious detail of history or math or basic science that I thought everyone learned in grade school just because some idiot decided to challenge the most apparent truths for obviously self serving reasons.

  That sounds really super arrogant, but really I’m an extremely patient person. It’s very rare that I feel that something is so intolerably stupid that I am so disgusted that I can’t even be bothered to comment. And honestly, I think everyone is entitled to a moment of absolute stupidity here and there. I’m not inclined to judge you if you say something stupid or wrong now and then. We all have.

  But it does happen. Sometimes people say things that are just beyond the pale and I am left speechless. And it’s happening much more frequently lately over the last year or so than in the past even though I haven’t been posting very much.  Not just on my blog but on all the blogs I read too. It’s quite strange.

  I got to thinking about this whole attitude I have toward blog comments and decided to write about it when I had a conversation the other day with a friend about the changes in the xanga community and how much less fun I have on here now then I used to. I mentioned the idea that idiots aren’t to be responded to.

  Then, a few days later one of my favorite bloggers, digby, covered and explained this principle of not arguing with idiocy much better than I ever could.  She was responding to an absurd false “scandal” I noticed people talking about on my twitter feed.  Namely, people noted that Conservapedia, a repository of user generated lies, had content describing relativity as a liberal plot.  I’m serious. Apparently these people believe Einstein just made it up because he wanted to turn the country communist!

  Here’s digby:

  “I know, I know. It really is very funny but I can’t laugh at this.

  Why? Because some of you, right now, are starting to waste the little time you have here on earth by marshaling reasoned arguments and accurate facts to refute Conservapedia’s lies. And so are others. And that is terribly sad.

  Worse, it is counterproductive, because every moment you spend engaging right wing lunatics over tired, out-of-date, and utterly nonsensical argument over science they think is too liberal, is a moment taken away from encountering the truly exciting discoveries being announced almost hourly … And if you are so busy refighting the past that you can’t keep up with the present, then it becomes all that harder to understand what science is doing, and to support it.
  …
  But wait! you protest. We can’t let that garbage hang out there uncontested. Besides, people will learn a great deal about physics if we address the arguments in a clear, accessible fashion, and teach reality.

  Yes, sure, I’ll agree that’s all true. So what?

  Sure, we can contest them. But if we completely ignore their utterly ridiculous lies, distortions, and antiquated disputes, then we, not they, get to set the terms of the discourse. That is one reason why great scientists won’t bother to lower themselves to engage folks like the bozos behind Conservapedia (doing so also elevates the bozos). I see no reason why anyone, scientist or layperson, should enter an argument over the relativism of relativity. On the other hand, I do think we need to expose right wing ignoramuses as often as possible. In order to ridicule them. And to sneer. But argue over whether E=MC squared makes Jesus’ miracles impossible? That’s a waste of time. Ok, go ahead if you want to. Whatever. But if want to do some real good, you’ll laugh at them instead.

  As for learning a great deal about physics through debunking lies…well, yeah, that’ll work. But I think you could learn much more physics by exploring truth. And that requires honest discussion which, almost by definition, cannot take place with people who insist on an engagement over lies and distortions.

  Please people, laugh all you want at these clowns. Mock them. Denounce them, rail against them. Just don’t make the mistake of arguing with them. Don’t waste your time, and ours.*** We can’t afford it now. We never could.“

  Personally I don’t like ridiculing people. I learned the whole, “if you don’t have anything nice to say” principle… What’s more I find it boring. I’ll laugh on the inside sure, and in private when talking to friends. But I have zero interest in publicly humiliating anyone, even my worst enemies. I’ll let that be someone else’s job.

  But I do accept and understand that some comments really deserve nothing more. I might quible about the extent to which you should ridicule them or how helpful doing so is. But certainly we can all agree that arguing against that kind of idiocy is a total waste of time. Digby is dead on on that. So I won’t engage with those people. I’ve got better things to do. I hope that my readers have better things to do. I hope that everyone has better things to do. People who say such nonsense should be ignored by everyone until they disappear or die off. Or until they start saying different things.

  Basically what I’m saying is that there really is a level of idiocy that stands on its own and warrants no further comment.

  *The ONLY time I will ever delete a comment is when it is directed at another viewer of my blog and is extremely hateful, mean spirited or cruel. In particular a personal comment designed to hurt someone by exposing that person’s information to the public, that I will not hesitate to delete. And then, generally I will post a comment explaining that the entry was deleted and why I deleted it.  Basically if a comment causes measurable harm to someone, I will consider deleting it. But for the most part, I will let people say whatever they want and so far I’ve been lucky enough not to have to delete a comment. 

  • 6:09 pm
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