Crosspost "About debating the alt right, MRA's etc." from /r/MensLib:

Let me start off by posting this video of the excellent innuendo studios:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g
In it, Ian Danskin explains how all kinds of online spaces, hobby spaces, fandom spaces, etc. can be used to recruit for alt-right and similar groups. The people doing the recruitment tend to not rock the boat in obvious ways. They are nice, friendly. They also twist the truth a lot.

That as an introduction. I want to expand on it a bit. Bigots infiltrating neutral spaces is not the topic of this post. I want to warn for a particular dynamic that can come about when good people know the alt right, MRA's and stuff are operating somewhere. And that's taking up the gauntlet of debate. Doing that in neutral spaces can help counteract what they are doing, and good moderation and the community coming together against bigotry can nip infiltration by bigots in the bud. I think it's part of our role as men to bring our perspectives to the conversation in a nuanced way, while showing misogynists the door.

However, what you generally don't want to do unless you know very well how to debate is take the debate to them, in their own spaces. When you go into the space of someone else to talk to them there, you make yourself very vulnerable. This is even the case when the person you talk to is well-intentioned, this is why, for example, if you are involved with something newsworthy you usually don't want to talk to the press but leave it to the members with media training, it's so easy to say something that can be misunderstood or taken out of context. This only gets worse when the people you are talking to are primed to twist your words and take you out of context. And then your words will be used to just prop up their bigoted beliefs. I get there's a lot of guys here who want to take action, to take the fight to the jerks where they are, but that's not always the smart thing to do.

So basically TL';DR It's very noble to want to debate bigots and expose them for what they are, and it's great to do that in places that aren't dominated by bigots. But unless you know exactly what you are doing, going into their spaces to do it, where they moderate what you say and edit your quotes, can be very counterproductive.

Posted by PM_ME_BOARS | 23 September 2021 | Link