If you disagree with something you can ignore it and move on, or engage with it and respond with your own counter-argument.
I sympathize with a lot of what you wrote (and didn't downvote it), but the Trump era has highlighted a serious problem with your specific point above. The marginal cost of bullshit is zero. It takes basically no effort to post more of it, while it always takes at least a small amount of effort to debunk it.
Worse, the bullshitter usually has the first-mover advantage. To claim the initiative, they only have to post a new thread predicated on far-right propaganda or conspiracy theories or hijack an existing one. Once lost, the rhetorical high ground is difficult and time-consuming to reclaim. As soon as you argue with the shitposter, they effortlessly shift their role from aggressor to victim, as some would suggest is happening in this very conversation.
I've always maintained that the antidote to bad speech is more speech. A few years ago I would have died on this hill at your side. But principles that don't work in practice are useless... and this one, having been tested, simply doesn't work in practice. The sheer quantity of bullshit has an ironclad quality all its own.
I sympathize with a lot of what you wrote (and didn't downvote it), but the Trump era has highlighted a serious problem with your specific point above. The marginal cost of bullshit is zero. It takes basically no effort to post more of it, while it always takes at least a small amount of effort to debunk it.
Worse, the bullshitter usually has the first-mover advantage. To claim the initiative, they only have to post a new thread predicated on far-right propaganda or conspiracy theories or hijack an existing one. Once lost, the rhetorical high ground is difficult and time-consuming to reclaim. As soon as you argue with the shitposter, they effortlessly shift their role from aggressor to victim, as some would suggest is happening in this very conversation.
I've always maintained that the antidote to bad speech is more speech. A few years ago I would have died on this hill at your side. But principles that don't work in practice are useless... and this one, having been tested, simply doesn't work in practice. The sheer quantity of bullshit has an ironclad quality all its own.