Sealioning is a bad-faith discussion strategy where someone inserts themselves into either a semi-private, self-contained, or narrowly focused public conversati

Sealioning is a bad-faith discussion strategy where someone inserts themselves into either a semi-private, self-contained, or narrowly focused public conversation insisting that the conversation stop until a speaker justifies every point they're making to an arbitrary degree that the sea lion chooses. It's considered bad-faith because even though sea lions act with civility, they're really trying to derail the overall conversation by preventing it from moving forward, or by forcing the speaker to apply a standard of rigor beyond what the current conversation requires. Sea lions selectively demand debate in inappropriate contexts, and demand that they be unconditionally given the intellectual and emotional energy to sustain that debate. It doesn't just mean, "someone disagreed with me and asked a question about something I consider settled." A Hackernews thread is an appropriate place for civil debate, especially in the context of GP responding to criticism you raised on their post. It's good for us to assume the best of critics in this context, and not to be skeptical of their motives.