Comment on Lemmy's active userbase has been stable since September 2025
Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 weeks agoAlways claims of sea-lioning, but never any evidence. You’ve had me blocked for over a year now, why continue this crusade?
Comment on Lemmy's active userbase has been stable since September 2025
Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 weeks agoAlways claims of sea-lioning, but never any evidence. You’ve had me blocked for over a year now, why continue this crusade?
comfy@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I’ve come across some people who have no idea what “sealioning” even means. There used to be a hb user “Ulysses” or something, like three years ago, who accused me of doing it after I replied to their reply to my reply, and that’s the only conversation we’d ever had. I pulled up the definition of sealioning and the comic which the word originated from, and they just say “no that’s not true, stop sealioning”.
I feel like some people just think sealioning means “this person keeps replying to my posts”, as if conversations on a public forum are somehow uncalled for, or unusual.
Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
It’s a real thing, for sure, but more often than not is used as a conversation terminator.
BlackDragon@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
The sealion in the original comic is completely correct, which makes me very suspicious of anyone who dismisses someone for “sealioning” and as you say, it usually is just used as an excuse not to engage with what someone is saying.
The sealion in the comic overheard someone being racist against them, and stepped in to say, “Hey, why are you being racist?” And for some reason is wrong because… they’re persistent? Or because they’re annoying? How is that not literally just every “anti-woke” argument?
Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Agreed! They take issue more with the argument style to dismiss the substance.
comfy@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I think the point is that the sea lion is feigning civility while harassing someone over a casual opinion.
My response would be that if we extend the metaphor, like you did, and substitute the absurd ‘sea lions’ for a race, then harassing the racist doesn’t bother me. Bigots don’t deserve peace. It’s absolutely harassment to stalk and interrogate someone who doesn’t want to talk, I just wouldn’t care that they’re being harassed for airing such bigotry.
(On the other hand, if we assume the original opinion is not a metaphor and replace it with a similarly absurd statement, like enjoying pineapple on pizza, then the sea lion would be acting unreasonably. If someone followed you around online and kept bringing up how you prefer pizza to be prepared, demanding a calm discussion and insisting on peer-reviewed proof that pizza tastes better a certain way, while you ask them to stop, that harassment would obviously be uncalled for)