unfinished thought but there's a distinction between when you see someone's action as a decision they made, vs. when you see it as revealing their True Nature, which was inside them all along but the mask has slipped
and this is obviously a very unproductive basis for discussion
but the problem is, on Twitter/Reddit/etc., it's frequently true. there are shitloads of people on those sites concern trolling and misrepresenting their intentions to score points in whatever fucking game they're playing. if you've engaged in political discourse on those sites, you have had that moment where someone seemed like they kept misunderstanding you, but then you remembered to check the post history and oh you sneaky little fucker. now I'm embarrassed that I even tried.
this experience has not set us up well for having conversations with people who disagree in good faith.
