Saturday 10 November 2012

Hating the 'hater' hater

What's the best thing to do in any debate? Shut down the opposition of course! Who needs to engage in dialogue when you can completely dismiss what the other person is saying, no matter what it is?

Which is basically where the phrase "Haters gotta hate" comes into it. With those three words, anything negative the other person has to say can be completely disregarded as merely the deliberately contrary stance of, what can be strawman over-simplified as, a troll.

Fine, yes, some trolls are out there, definitely hating just to rile the pundits and get a reaction, in which case they need to be identified. But with any basic algorithm, there are false positives, either accidental or, more likely, deliberate.

But while there are trolls, not every negative position comes from that mindset. Some of us (and yes, here is where I admit this has been levelled at me) have a genuine reason for not liking... whatever it is, and yet... bam, three words later, nothing I have to say has any audience because... a glib saying.

Thanks a lot... you aren't worth talking to anyway...

[END]

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