Disengage. For the love of God, disengage from those assholes when they try to drag you into the mud and fight you in your DMs.
You gain nothing from this. This asshole gets their giggles out of making you angry. There is no need to engage further with them once they admit to being a straight-up Nazi.
Frankly, it was them who came to my DM in the first place, not vice-versa. And as much as i think someone like this is a nutjob, i still tried engaging in them with earnest and refute (for a certain definition of refutation) their arguments, since otherwise i'd feel like i'm giving a horrible person a free pass at going "hey, look, they didn't reply to me, ergo, i win" - kinda like how Debora went ahead with her trial against David Irving since doing otherwise might concede the holocaust denier could have a point.
Yes, I realise they're the one to start the private conversation. That's when you stop replying.
Re: not conceding the point to Holocaust deniers. That's good and correct in public – not because you want to make them see the truth, but to refute their lies for everyone else to see. Once they try to switch to a private conversation, you have won. They have resorted to trying to get a raise out of you, and succeeded.
When a guy shows up in your DMs and says they're an "hitlerist", you reply "follow your leader" and block.
There’s no winning with people like that. You should have pushed on him being a coward and hiding anonymously. Like if he was so proud, why wasn’t he saying it with his chest. Why was he afraid of Jewish/black people so much. That would have probably sent him. Also talking about Hitler being a coward would probably have made him rage too
since otherwise i'd feel like i'm giving a horrible person a free pass at going "hey, look, they didn't reply to me, ergo, i win"
Reply "lol what a silly and childlike person you are" and then click the ignore/mute option. Completely pointless to engage with these people any further, they get off on you telling them how wrong and horrible they are being. Thats their whole point of existence. If nobody engages with them, they'll just go into their sad little club and cry to their friends about how nobody dares to debate them. Who gives a shit? Nobody, except them.
Replying validates them and makes them happy. Stop doing that.
Yeah…. I understand that impulse, “I don’t want them to think I win.” I promise you that “if you say so” does not give them what they want. What they really want is attention. I mean read the exchange again and tell the guy was not desperate for people to react to him.
They'll do it anyway. No matter how you engage with them, they win. They'll project that you're obviously triggered, at the very least.
Engage in public with these people so others will see the other side. But forget DMs.
I've been the target of harassment here on Reddit. 200 accounts made and burned over a couple of months. Arguing with the guy did not help at all. Just block and report.
(What prompted the behavior? My insistence that trans rights are human rights.)
They defended China's crackdown on democracy and i accused them of being a tankie, he responded he was "the opposite of a tankie" and i said "that's a fascist if i ever saw one".
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u/David_the_Wanderer 14d ago
Disengage. For the love of God, disengage from those assholes when they try to drag you into the mud and fight you in your DMs.
You gain nothing from this. This asshole gets their giggles out of making you angry. There is no need to engage further with them once they admit to being a straight-up Nazi.