Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

(02-14-2017, 03:58 PM)TeacherinExile Wrote: > I've been holding back on this issue for some time, so here
> goes...

> I, too, have walked away from this forum once before--only to
> embrace it again--for much the same reasons cited by SomeGuy. (I,
> for one, would hate to see him go.) One of the main attractions
> of The Fourth Turning for me was its nonpartisan approach
> to generational theory. Indeed, the book struck me as
> distinctly apolitical, and at a time when the political
> passions of the Left and Right were running hot--and still are.
> I'd like to think this forum is an "oasis of civility in an
> increasingly uncivil society." That would be the ideal anyway.
> The webmaster should be committed--and I'm not saying he isn't--to
> keeping comments civil. But too often, some of the overheated
> rhetoric on this forum has been an affront to standards of
> civility. Allowing trolls to blog unchecked and uncensored on
> this forum runs the same risk as that stated in Gresham's Law: the
> bad drives out the good.

> I blog on this forum, not for affirmation, but to have my views
> challenged, perhaps even changed by dint of some
> reasoning much more persuasive than my own. I was not the kind of
> school teacher who stood in front of the class with arms folded
> and dared the students to disagree with me. (Quite the contrary,
> it was actually very hard to elicit any debate at all by the time
> I left the teaching profession in 2003.) On this forum I expect a
> civil and spirited debate, one that offers sound arguments and
> counterarguments. And, yes, pushback that exposes my own faulty
> logic or political hypocrisy. I'm not looking to form a Mutual
> Admiration Society with anyone here. I might agree with you
> wholeheartedly one moment but then stringently disagree with you
> in the next.

> Having said that, though, I will admit that I do not suffer fools
> gladly. By that, I mean--first and foremost--mean people. If you
> cannot best my argument by superior reason, I will no longer deign
> to debate you if all you have by way of rebuttal are ad
> hominen attacks. There's quite enough of that already in our
> body politic today. And by the way that didn't start with
> Millennials. Check out the heated exchange between William
> F. Buckley and Gore Vidal in the historical documentary The Best
> of Enemies, if you want to trace where our split-screen TV
> shout-fests originated.

> So all I can say in conclusion is: Practice tact. I struggle with
> that myself sometimes.

Being tactful is a great strategy when you're dealing with someone you
know, and you're perhaps having a friendly or even unfriendly argument
about something, where both people know that they'll have to continue
"living together," and won't cross too many red lines.

But tact only backfires when it comes to dealing with trolls, abusive
people who are trying to destroy you. For these people, tact is a
sign of weakness that energizes them and motivates them to become even
more abusive.

The common bromide for dealing with trolls is "just ignore them."
These are people who are well aware of that strategy and know how to
take advantage of it. If you ignore them, then they'll declare
victory and in the future will repeatedly claim that they crushed you.
The extreme form of "just ignore them" is leaving, and that gives the
troll total victory.

There are many trolls around. Sometimes it's sexual, as when a troll
becomes abusive with a woman, or a woman starts backstabbing her ex or
his new girlfriend. More often it's ideological, with the troll being
a babbling idiot, except that he believes that he can win a political
or ideological argument simply by being the most abusive person
online. It's well-known by now that there are many paid trolls online
whose job it is to attack people who write about the wrong things.
I've been attacked by many of these trolls. In the past couple of
years, Russia had hundreds of paid trolls, attacking everyone in
sight. This really backfired on Russia, because now even someone who
legitimately supports Putin or al-Assad is suspected of being a troll
-- and probably is.

I've learned through experience that if you "reason" with these
trolls, and answer "constructively" or "tactfully," then they only
escalate their attacks, which become increasingly vitriolic and
offensive. I've learned that the only way to deal with bullies is to
respond to them in kind. Ignoring them doesn't work either, as they
respond with a flood of taunting, offensive and demeaning posts that
accuse you of being too stupid to answer. I personally am absolutely
not willing to tolerate just sitting here and being a punching bag for
that kind of person.

It's usually not difficult to take advantage of their stupidity. In
most cases, paid trolls are just working from talking points supplied
by their trollmasters, so sooner or later they make a mistake. Once
that happens, you can turn the tables and attack them for their
stupidity. I've been able to thrash a number of bullies using this
technique. It's not tactful, but it works.