2026-07-26 21:03 UTC
Replies (5)
-
@olaf@social.secret-wg.org 2026-07-26 21:19
@fanf@mendeddrum.org don’t become a daemon doing it…
-
@dotstdy@mastodon.social 2026-07-26 21:05
@fanf@mendeddrum.org devils advocate is like jury juty for assholes. Wait no that's a flame.
-
@cjwatson@mastodon.ie 2026-07-26 21:20
@fanf@mendeddrum.org My usual response is "I think the devil has enough advocates". I'm not sure it exactly gets people to stop being jerks but it does tend to at least bring them up short.
-
@CliftonR@wandering.shop 2026-07-26 21:39
@fanf@mendeddrum.org You might try something based on John Scalzi's dictum, "The failure mode for 'clever' is asshole", perhaps?
-
@jackv@mas.to 2026-07-26 22:27
@fanf@mendeddrum.org Does it seem like they're actually interested in exploring the terrible idea? Then I think the polite thing is to directly point out "That idea will hurt/mislead a lot of people, and a lot of bad people float the idea 'just as a devils advocate'." (Whereas if they're interested in exploring it in theory without actually defending it, I think the polite thing to say it's harmful to do it in public, find some friends to theorise with. Eg teenagers need to know what not to say, but also need to experiment with thinking through where the boundaries should be themselves)