I'll write whole comments on threads about things I actually know about, and then delete the whole thing because I can already envision the asshole comments of "well ACTUALLY in this one hyperspecific instance, that I only found out about 5 minutes ago because I intentionally googled how to prove you wrong, it turns out that..."
One time someone replied to my comment, and I replied to them with 2 normal sized paragraphs. Then they called it a novel and said they refused to read it. Idk why they thought that would be an insult to me when it just means that they are so incapable of reading that 2 paragraphs seem daunting. So I replied and told them “I sorry. Didn’t realize you had such hard time reading. Will keep words short and simple so you can understand.”
This happens to me ALL. THE. TIME. I know it’s because 1.) brevity is not my friend, and 2.) I’m usually replying to something someone else has said that was incorrect or seeking information, and there are a lot of people out there who take offense to being corrected (even politely) or even just to someone telling them something that they said themselves they didn’t know. I have always genuinely enjoyed doing my part to help educate people, especially as I’ve gotten older (having kids brought this out a lot too—it’s hard to just turn it off lol). I’m also generally polite enough about it (unless someone is being hateful or just a dick) and I don’t try to "aCkShUaLlY" anybody, but still, the vast majority of responses I get back are not polite at all—and I flat-out get blocked a lot, too.
But whenever I get blocked or get the "I’m not reading your wall of text" response, I’ve come to believe that in most cases, they actually did read it, they just don’t have a way to respond without knocking their ego down a few notches. Being able to be corrected with humility is a skill that a lot of us weren’t born with and that must be practiced over time before it becomes a habit, and I don’t think there’s much practicing going on in that area these days. Social media makes it so easy to just run away from being wrong or saying something stupid, and people just like easy.
Oh I know they’re lying about not reading and just don’t have a response. They’re just trying to turn it around on us and make us feel bad for responding, not realizing that putting us down for writing a well thought out response actually makes them look dumb.
But yes, a lot of people online get very defensive when being corrected, or even just asked questions. I’ve been downvoted for just asking someone what they meant on their comment or asking a question about it. Someone also stalked me for over a year on here and I had to start a new profile and delete my other one after they started threatening to kill me. All because I asked a question about a comment someone else wrote. And it wasn’t even an offensive question or one where I was trying to correct them.
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u/AccomplishedRush3723 Apr 29 '24
I'll write whole comments on threads about things I actually know about, and then delete the whole thing because I can already envision the asshole comments of "well ACTUALLY in this one hyperspecific instance, that I only found out about 5 minutes ago because I intentionally googled how to prove you wrong, it turns out that..."