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> Debunk if it need be Fascists are very good at subverting this process so I wouldn’t count on it. I do believe visibility is good though re: the Streisand ef

• kibwen 4y ago
  "Debunking" requires people to be operating in good faith (where a "good faith argument" is an argument where both sides are legitimately trying to advance their own knowledge, rather than "win an argument" for its own sake). You can't "debunk" someone who isn't even playing by the rules of the game, and fascists have always exploited this. "Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past."