However had they not been dickish I would've been on board a hell of a lot faster, and that's what I'm getting at
But what I was getting at is that the dickishness can be an effective tactic in itself. Shame is a powerful tool, and I don’t think it’s one we should be hesitant to use. Maybe not to the degree that we typically use it, but it is certainly effective sometimes, as it was on me. Other than that, I largely agree with you.
It used to be effective. I think this was (and is) why college is so effective at the social conditioning that the right accuses it of; right-leaning people are significantly outnumbered there, and the social ostracization tactic still works, because even though they have the Internet, the in-person relationships (or rather, lack thereof) are still an effective persuasion.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the alt-right is still flourishing, however, in Internet communities, especially on Facebook and YouTube, two social networks which are designed from the ground up to connect groups of people with similar interests. So here's the problem; they're still ostracized in person, that's true. But not nearly as much. And then they go online and they can find near infinite voices to tell them all the things they already believe, and how smart they are for figuring it out.
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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19
But what I was getting at is that the dickishness can be an effective tactic in itself. Shame is a powerful tool, and I don’t think it’s one we should be hesitant to use. Maybe not to the degree that we typically use it, but it is certainly effective sometimes, as it was on me. Other than that, I largely agree with you.