• PugJesus@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    That’s the issue with lies and misleading claims, though. They take much longer and much more effort to refute than they do to make, especially if the other party explicitly ignores a core piece of your argument that you explicitly state and only acknowledges that half a dozen comments in. What could have been a quick

    If you want to argue that as a matter of moral responsibility, fine, but the point raised above is quite clearly about military efforts to distinguish civilians from combatants in operations.

    I’m talking about overall moral responsibility. The US is responsible for those 77% of overall deaths and military action is only part of that.

    No argument there. Just saying our military actions are more careful.

    Becomes a drawn out argument because some commenter wanted to piss away time and effort by intentionally setting up a fight where both sides are arguing against positions their opposition isn’t actually holding (Me trying to refute claimed proportions of civilian casualties as part of military operations, which they ceased to dispute; and them trying to argue that the death ratio is horrific and moral responsibility for the deaths is still held by the aggressor, and that military operations are only part of that, which I never disputed).

    • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      The only way to participate in these conversations is to not. You make your point, they start going off, and you move on. Engaging validates the terms of their argument, even if it doesn’t validate their specific argument.

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Yeah. Just thought they were making a good faith disputation, and now I’m pissed that I wasted effort trying to refute someone who just wanted to dance their time away.