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Mike Sowden's avatar

Great overview, this - I have a few people who might need it, so I'll point them your way...

Yes, understanding sea-lioning is SO important with this working-online lark. Once you understand it and can react to it, it saves so much time.

The same is true with understanding burden of proof: if someone leaps in with some cockadoodledoo theory that flies in the face of 99% of the evidence, it's NOT up to us to disprove it by watching their 3-hour YouTube video etc - it's up to THEM to prove it, clearly and succinctly, by successfully arguing away that 99%. Otherwise they have no credibility and don't deserve to be treated seriously. This is another colossal time-saver.

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Richard Parry's avatar

Nice post, great value as always 🙂 I totally missed Emma Horsedick's comments on my Substack because a) Easter, and so b) I wasn't really online - I logged back in to see the email notifications, but by then the account had been scorched-Earthed 🙂

I dig your point on Substack being a safe space for all creators. I really wrestled with this then came to the same conclusion you did - they're everywhere. I took it a step forward (in the vein of your "write more") which is that cutting off communication is where the bad stuff happens; if someone's a Nazi but we still have open comms, there's an opportunity for reform. Where much active harm was caused by Meta and the like is when private groups allowed this shit to flourish like fungus in the dark; suddenly incels didn't feel alone and were empowered by their other incel friends. Being connected in an online, open community (even with division) is better than the alternative.

Speaking of scorched Earth, I have sunset my Meta accounts (don't even use WhatsApp). There are good and viable alternatives (BlueSky, Substack/Notes, TikTok, Snap, Signal, the list goes on) with thriving communities.

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