But actually the big thing that helped me was sitting down and assessing why I wanted to correct this stuff. It never gave me any satisfaction, it never lead to anything I liked, and a good deal of it was likely venting trauma from being talked down to all my life. Once I put it together it just kind of stopped happening.

You should stop treating arguments like a game. The point isn’t to win - it’s to find the truth. Every argument should start from the acknowledgement that you might be wrong, and if so, you wish to not be wrong for a minute longer than necessary. I can’t think of a single thing that better demonstrates intellectual honesty than someone actually changing their view when faced with a convincing argument.

However, not all arguments are worth continuing. When your opponent doesn’t even engage with what you’re saying, or when you’re not even open to the possibility that they might have a point, there’s no reason to keep going - there’s no end to it. So many online “arguments” are just people performing for an audience with no real regard for whether their points are landing or not. They’re after applause, not a change of mind.

I don’t argue with people who are wrong. I point out where they are wrong, and why, for the sake of passers-by who may need more complete information, because most people are lurkers, and most people tend to believe what’s typed on the internet without much further question.

Eventually you learn that its not worth it.

90% of the time, people aren’t arguing in good faith. You can only hear another variant of the cosmological argument so many times before you realize that arguing is pointless

I’m not exactly great at it myself… but my dad used to tell me a story from his job.

There was a guy that made some claims, another desperately trying to correct him and tell him he’s wrong. To no avail, afterwards, he turned to another person that had a doctorate in the very topic they were arguing about. And said “why didn’t you say anything!? You know he is wrong!”

To which the doctor replied “yeah, but it’s not my problem that he’s an idiot”

you don’t have a problem with stopping the argument. you have a problem with the desire to always be right. you’re compensating for a lack of recognition in your skills and intelligence in real life.

accept that you will never get that recognition and you will stop needing to be right.

I know this, because I was this.

next time you see something that someone said is wrong, just high five them and move on.

Quite literally, you need to learn self-control, how to pick your fights, manage your emotions.

You really wanna let a bunch of random asshats on the internet live rent free in your head, dictate the emotional course of your day, your evening, your week?

This is where the ‘touch grass’ meme partially comes from.

Sometimes, you need to let go, walk away, pet a kitty, hug a dog, admire a tree… or more ideally, work on some hobby that you find fun and fulfilling, and is at least potentially ‘useful’ in some very broad kind of practical way.

Also, a lot of people are beyond wrong/misinformed; they’re actively committed to denying that they’re wrong, even after its been shown that they are wrong.

You can just block people who are unwilling to admit fault or learn.

Its doesn’t need to be your responsibility to personally deal with every dumb idiot asshole on the internet.

i usually engage briefly so that others can see there is pushback, because i know most people are lurkers and it is important to me that there are both sides represented. but i learned when they respond in bad faith i can just disengage and either block or move on. i listen to my body’s reactions and try to leave when i feel myself getting agitated. it works for me :)

step 1. understand that people are people

step 2. understand that other people have their own problems are often don’t have the time/energy to focus on the topic at hand

step 3. understand that you’re not going to help other people by hammering your argument into their head. instead the thing that helps more is to make a better quality of life for everyone, then they will have the time to actually listen to you and find a meaningful result.

It all depends on your motivation, but what I prefer to do is think about the reader. Imagine there’s some post and someone makes a comment and I know that the comment is wrong or misleading. So I might decide to reply. And my comment is there to help readers not be deceived by the previous comment.

Therefore, I don’t need to deal with any sub comments and I don’t need to keep following that thread. The most important thing was to have a rebuttal to the primary claim that was made and I already wrote that so my work is done. I find this to be an okay use of time, at least some of the time, because a lot of times the commenter that I’m replying to is someone that I just can’t reach. They might have some immovable position on a political issue or they could be religious or they could be argumentative or trolling. And I could go back and forth with them several times, but really nobody else would read our thread, so it would be a waste of time.

Of course that’s only one approach and it really depends on the types of comments and issues that you’re concerned with. But it’s one way to reduce stress and save you time.

Bro dont argue on public social media especially fb. They’re idiots. I only stay there for marketplace and like 2 friends.

I wish i could voice my thoughts on fb but I’d get instantly labeled as a terrorist by the Drump regime for daring to go against dear leader and oligarchy.

On public social media they likely think I’m a right wing Drump voter 😄

I usually reply once. I don’t argue. I said what I said, bye.

Yeah it can be rough. My strategy is simple; I practice radical acceptance of the fact that 1) I’m always right about everything no matter what and 2) everybody else is wrong and stupid. Also 3) nobody is more knowledgeable than me about any subject, period. Its simply impossible.

I find that this goes a long way towards reducing friction. Hope this helps!

Turn off notifications. Even if they reply, you’ll never see it. One comment, if you have to, and then you ‘walk away.’

Honestly, if you mean Facebook then I salute you for having the patience. If I had to correct the moronic comments I see whenever I use that platform I’d explode. It genuinely made me loose faith in democracy as a system. I honestly don’t think half of these people should have a vote.