I was engaged in a discussion relating to the energy consumption of #GenerativeAI with @SecurityWriter
I spent well over an hour (or two... I lost track) writing a response to what can only be described as an emotionally charged attack on not only my points but also my character, and only when I was satisfied with my response did I realise my interlocutor had #blocked my account, preventing me from submitting my rebuttal.
Poor form!
@bemmesr I read your reply. Poor form indeed on his part. I encounter these people sometimes when just debating politely and in good faith; they're definitely around the place here.
@bemmesr I'd like to point out, if I may, that microblogging platforms in general are pretty allergic to civil discourse. As far as I can tell, Mastodon has much less of a reputation of being this way, but it still has a problem, epecially when arguing against something left-wing.
@bemmesr I have a text file on my phone with things I'm learning about arguing with people who might suddenly reveal themselves to be arguing in bad faith and you don't know when or if ever. Part of it: "When it is time to disappear: when you reach the point of no return, where you realize they are arguing in bad faith or are unreasonable or not listening. Stop then."
I mean, in this case, they blocked you so I suppose it's different. [1/2]
@bemmesr But I'm learning that arguing, for humans, is fundamentally a cooperative process: both parties need to be striving for the *truth*, or else the process is highly unreliable.
These are my thoughts. Don't let me tell you what to do :) [2/2]
@bemmesr I feel like debate fits forum-style social media... but the problem is, which platform? I know that there are Fediverse alternatives to Reddit (Lemmy and Kbin) but I've never been on those, so I can't vouch for them.
There's qoto.org. Might be worth a try. On their page, they advertise themselves as a place for civil discussion. They have a post limit of 65,535 chars (as opposed to the typical Mastodon 500), so they're better fit for bigger discussions. They federate and their code is
@bemmesr based on Mastodon, though they've been blocked by a number of servers due to allowing mostly free speech or something. I remember the whole rigmarole where people were trying to get them widely defederated.
You need to be in STEM to join Qoto though, I think....
@golemwire okay interesting, I may give qoto a look. Perhaps I'll be able to interact with them once I set up self hosting, without necessarily joining them
@bemmesr For sure, keeping the truth as the goal takes discipline and is easy to mess up.
@golemwire Hey thanks Ethan for your tips. You mentioned that microblogging platforms tend to be allergic to civil discourse, I'm wondering if you know of a platform that might be less allergic? Not that I want to argue for the sake of it, but I do like to test my thoughts by leaving them open to criticism.
I think as you mentioned, it is valuable to keep a common goal of the truth in mind, and I know I can often lose sight of that myself when caught in the heat of debate.