Half the time my goal when someone is wrong on the internet isn’t to convince them, it’s to convince anyone else that might be reading. But in part that’s because most of my internet arguments take place somewhere like reddit instead of somewhere like Facebook. Convincing people who are just passively reading is easily, and it helps to modulate your message so that you don’t end up getting combative (the biggest risk in arguing with people on the internet who keep being wrong).
Half the time my goal when someone is wrong on the internet isn’t to convince them, it’s to convince anyone else that might be reading. But in part that’s because most of my internet arguments take place somewhere like reddit instead of somewhere like Facebook. Convincing people who are just passively reading is easily, and it helps to modulate your message so that you don’t end up getting combative (the biggest risk in arguing with people on the internet who keep being wrong).