this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
934 points (98.6% liked)

World News

39032 readers
2261 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Nine times out of ten, those kinds of questions are never done in good faith so they tend to be downvoted. It's called sealioning.

[–] gsfraley@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh wait that's a much safer term to describe those antics than what I've been using. I've always known it as "JAQing off" (just asking questions).

[–] 4ce@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago

There seems to be a bit of a difference, even though both involve asking questions. To quote wiktionary:

sealioning (uncountable)
A type of trolling or harassment that consists of pursuing people with relentless requests for evidence, often tangential or previously addressed, while maintaining a pretense of civility and sincerity ("I'm just trying to have a debate"), and feigning ignorance of the subject matter, in order to wear down an opponent and incite angry responses that will discredit them.

Apparently coined by this webcomic:

https://wondermark.com/c/1k62/

JAQ off (third-person singular simple present JAQs off, present participle JAQing off, simple past and past participle JAQed off) (slang, derogatory) To ask loaded questions inviting someone to justify their views or behaviours, in an attempt to make tangential claims of little verisimilitude appear acceptable.

So the way I understand it, "JAQing off" is when you're trying to guide your audience towards a certain conclusion without stating it outright (e.g. "Are the official numbers of holocaust victims really as solid as people claim? Are there alternative historical interpretations? I'm just asking questions here, not implying anything folks." when you think just saying "The holocaust didn't happen!" might make it too obvious you're a Nazi), while sealioning is more about annoying the other party and trying to make them look bad/unreasonable and yourself polite and reasonable in comparison (e.g. "I'm just curious, is there any actual evidence that fascists are inherently bad people, as you claim? As a person with no opinion on the matter, I would just like to have an honest and open debate on this subject." so when people reply with something like "Fuck off, fascist!" you can say "Wow, so much for the tolerant left."). Both tactics are frequently applied by online trolls, especially of the far right, but they have somewhat different goals.

[–] doctorcrimson 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And this is a place where we have the authority to call people out on their bullshit and make everybody more informed in the process. Deep Canvasing is more effective than Sealioning.

Nice iFunny watermark, heathen

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Ah yeah, that's what they all say amirite?

I've probably only met a handful of communist who admit to the crimes of communist regimes and acknowledged that communism in practice never lived up to the ideals. But they're only far and few and majority of communists engages in bad faith behaviour, especially when you list all the bad things communists states have done and they go "no true communists fallacy" or "what gulag?". Or, even if they acknowledge the arbitrary arrests and purge, they say "those people deserved it".

But yeah, keep feigning acting in good faith. I've seen this many times.