Thread by @AlexandraErin

Main thing I learned from trying to debate with Gamergate ~2015 is: there's no point in trying to debate with Gamergate.

A lot of them are conscious trolls. Many of the ones who aren't, aren't motivated by belief in a fact but by the emotions that underpin it.

In the very unlikely event that you manage to reason one of them away from a position that they have accepted as true, that doesn't ripple to the next person who comes to argue the same point.

And the person you convinced will probably be swayed back by the group dynamic anyway.

The idea that, say, a certain set of allegations are false isn't something they know, or something they have reason to believe to be factual, but something that emotionally resonates and fits a narrative.

So they accept immediately any argument in support of that conclusion.

Motivated reasoning isn't something you can argue with. Changing someone's mind usually requires some kind of entrypoint where the person already respects you or has some reason to care about what you're saying.

You can't just debate a stranger out of villifying another person.

So now I just to block. Block early, block often.