Blocking doesn't stop them from propagandizing others.
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2026
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True but sometimes you have to pick your battles for your own mental health.
Very true, but be careful not to end up in an echo chamber
Echo Chambers are great. You just think they're horrible because you're in an echo chamber that says they're horrible.
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But interacting with them will be interpreted as "engagement" and lead the algorithms to push them into more feeds and rank them higher.
Well not on lemmy I don't think they use algorathms to rank content and are open about how they rank comments and such. Not entirely sure though I am not a computer guy.
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Interacting with them won't either. There is no winning with them.
The point is not to change the troll's opinion; the point is to discredit them in front of whoever else may be reading the thread.
Also, the other action other than blocking them is reporting them and having a mod or admin remove them for everybody at once.
Both of those are better options than individually blocking.
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oh, yeah! sometimes we need to use the report button too.
Not sure arguing with them really does either. I think this was true in simple chronological message boards, but anything that boosts content due to engagement is just going to make it worse...
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If you block everything you don't like, you end up in an echo chamber with no possibility of new perspective. Learning and Insight require thesis and antithesis. If there's anything you should block, it's rude, agitating, insulting rageladen discussions or users. Those also hinder Insight and new perspectives.
I agree, but with so many bots around I think there has been a concerted effort to obfuscate the truth, so it’s a balance for sure
If you find an unlabeled bot, most admins will ban them.
So far every time I've seen someone claim Lemmy is full of bots, they haven't been able to identify 1 unlabled bot.
And its not even hard, there are users that AI slop in arguments, so I think its literally just people wanting an excuse to dismiss viewpoints they don't like.
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I block US politics because it's same whining every day, that by and large has nothing to do with me. Even though I'd like to learn occasionally what new entertaining stuff the pedofascist came up with, I don't think I'm missing much, and I'm getting closer to the last frame from the OP.
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Over the years I've realized the futility of engaging with idiocy online. It's either trolls, bots, or morons, and I'm not convinced any interaction is worth it to me, all it does is piss me off, and I'm just enabling their stupid bullshit.
So yeah, there's a one strike and you're out policy now. Does that increase my echo chamber, sure, but I'd rather interact with like minded people than piss away my own happiness by feeding bots, idiots, and trolls.
"It's either trolls, bots, or morons"...which one are you? 😁
I'm the alpha and omega of online toxicity, bow before my sludge
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Everyone will piss you off once eventually
There's 8 billion people, if you count bots there are probably 16 billion. I already have good people in my actual life, I can spare a few online souls lol
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Debating with people in general is something I’ve found to be stupid and pointless as I’ve gotten older, even if they’re not trolls. I don’t even like watching videos of others debating. People come out the other end more entrenched than they were before. As for trolls, I don’t engage at all. My echo chamber is devoid of righties and nothing of value was lost.
debating people is great when they want to actually debate.
they don't thought, anymore. especially online. and on campuses, student activists try to shut down debates rather than attended them and learn something. one of my favorite part was attending lectures and debates and while some where shitty, i always learned something.
people don't believe in the principle of charity anymore either. you can't have debate or education without the principle of charity... otherwise it's just a trying to beat down the opposite side.
not to mention most popular 'debate' is not real debate, it's people being ignorant assholes and doubling-down on it and people viewing that as 'confidence' and 'victory'.
Thank you! Discussing ideas is amazing, even with people who disagree with you.
It can help both sides learn so much and acquire perspective.
What people think debates are is shaped a lot by how youtube and politicians portray them (and of course, in that format, it's a fallacy free-for-all).
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meanwhile the righties have also built their echo chamber devoid of uncomfortable discussions also. and the polarization continues to get deeper, dehumanization of 'the others' and wars become a common idea.
Those groups are filled with anti-trans, pro-corporate nonsense. I don’t even know what the point is, other than to make themselves feel bigger when the reality is that they’re just scared. It’s an echo chamber permeated with billionaire-funded viewpoints. No original thought, while also needing someone to punch down at every time.
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Meh. I've learned some interesting things from some people I found a bit annoying.
It's how I've come from card-carrying Republican to more or less fitting the label "progressive."
I think this is for people who are less "annoying" and more "actively lying and being bad faith." If someone says the elections were stolen, vaccines cause autism, and liberals hate America, I have other things I would rather do than investigate every one of the infinite conspiracy theories that I already know many others have debunked. It's essentially an exercise in bad faith rhetoric at that point, which is just so incredibly boring. I'll look into a few to see the patterns of how they lie, and then I'm good.
I think this is for people who are less “annoying” and more “actively lying and being bad faith.”
It can easily be co-opted by people willing to block either, as evidenced by the flame war in the comments here; the post suggests "I don't like this" -> Block. I don't like annoying people. I also don't like people arguing in bad faith.
This is further complicated by the fact that a lot of people misconstrue good faith arguments from very different points of view with bad faith arguments. I can't tell you how many times I've been labeled as someone arguing in bad faith because my view differed from theirs and I didn't immediately reverse my stance when confronted, or someone simply can't read very well (literacy rates being what they are these days).
In part, this is because trolls sometimes like to be very subtle and drag a conversation out for 50 comments.
In part, this is because people are dumb and/or paranoid and don't understand that people with other apparent viewpoints might not be trolls.
Well it's truly pretty rare that I block people, and maybe people do do that for things that they just disagree with, but I took it as the "block negative things out of your life."
Lots of crazy people on the internet, I just try to remember that sometimes I'm the one being smugly incorrect (and was that way up until like 25) so I can't get too mad at other people for it. It's why I heavily err on the side of caution, only when someone does the maga loop back to something they already agreed is false that I'm like ehhhh...
There's plenty of documentation surrounding people getting banned for little to no reason. Blocking obviously has much less accountability and transparency to it; don't you think people are much more willing to block for even less?
Not to be rude but, there are tons of people in the world and they're all completely different. "I wouldn't do it so nobody else would" is naive.
That's a very heavy lifting interpretation of the comic. It literally says "I don't like this thing". Not "this person is arguing in bad faith". This is how echo chambers form, and lemmy is a textbook example of one.
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Let no one tell you that blocking people means that you lost some arbitrary debate with some idiot online. I have proudly blocked my fair share of idiots and racists on all social media platforms (not before insulting them of course).
Any argument I've ever had online amounted to little in not nothing productive. If you think me blocking someone means I lost an arbitrary argument with a stranger online, you can think that all you want, I'm moving onto something else with my time.
Bingo. Honestly, i block people because i have better things to do than debate with morons.
I prefer a more direct approach...
Month of blocking people daily and even Lemmy starts to look like an ok place.
the problem is the problematic people are so insanely prolific. they also have multiple accounts on multiple instances, unlike normies who have one on one instance.
i was browsing lemmy logged out this morning and vs logging in it's like night and day. mostly because of a dozen or so power users who just spam every community incessantly with their rage-bait agendas. and a few of which go into the comments are try to silence any dissenter, skepticism, or disagreement by labeling such comments as an -ism.
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I've never blocked a single person and I am old.
I don't get the need. I just ignore them, and remove the "blocking" extra step. If some random Trumpy is super mad and messaging me often, it pleases me. I've got some guy on FB that has been messaging me for years, he's like my best friend now.
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Hence:
X officially changes block function
Here’s a fun new one, no longer able to block accounts on pages. Thanks, Meta
https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1ps4r5d/heres_a_fun_new_one_no_longer_able_to_block/
Under the new system it actually lets the blocked person know they are blocked, which is horrible design because they now know that they need to use an alt to send you mean messages. Under the old system they don't actually know if their messages are getting through, so it is better in that regard.
https://www.reddit.com/r/self/comments/1st24au/reddits_new_block_feature_is_bizarrely_antisocial/
Blocking someone reduces ragebait engagement, and they can't have that, I guess...
"for the love of god get off twitter" - Sonic The Hedgehog
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I’ve blocked a shit ton of people here. I don’t care about open discussion when people are not interested in discussing in good faith in the first place. Also it’s just Lemmy I’m here for entertainment I don’t care about your whack ass opinion. The real discussions are done IRL face to face where people can’t hide behind an username. It’s not like the opinion of a permanently online basement dweller on the other side of the planet is important for the development of my world view when they don’t know anything about my country.
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Takes a lot to block all the idiots on Lemmy. After a few months it starts to become a usable platform.
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I like how many people interpret this as hiding from literally every problem that exists as opposed to not dealing with trolls or comics you don’t like.
Context is a thing, you don’t have to apply everything as a universalism. That’s kind of a stupid thing to do.
Do you read every piece of junk mail you recieve? Do you read every spam email? No, its stupid as you say.
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Careful. Thats how echo chambres happen. Disagreeing can be uncomfortable and people might not like that feeling especially around facing and understanding bigotry. even more so if they havent learned to disagree amicably. Which youre not going to learn in flowers and meadows.
A healthy life is a reflected life. a healthy mind is an examined mind. playing only to a comfort level isnt exactly seeking growth.
i know a tonne of white ppl who you cant even fathom discussion around racism let alone politics without them going 'youre bumming me out. why cant we only speak about flowers and meadows'
which is privilege pushed by spoilt racist people who call themselves 'blessed' for being white and never having to experience such things and love waving that comfort bubble in everyone's less privileged face.
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Are they arguing in good faith?
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Are they willing to give and take?
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Is this a simple difference of perspective, or a moral line in the sand?
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Are you ready to change your mind on the outcome of the conversation?
It's better to block than to scream into the void
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Dont you think this is way easier then continously posting bi-weekly+ cringe feudposts in hopes to influence your particular lemmy instance admins to defederate people you dont like. Not just for you, but for everyone else.
Way faster to just block the person/instance yourself and let the other adults pick what they view themselves. Way easier. Way less cringe.
I am happy you are taking agency in what you view on the internet stranger. We are stronger federated together, even if we wish to live our lives in different ways.
Peace.
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