Recently on a Facebook comment thread I was reading related to the current COVID crisis and masking for school-age kids, a school teacher included in his comment that maybe there had been some deaths from the coronavirus …since it had been around since the 60s. He had also denigrated another commenter, saying that she obviously wasn’t a teacher since she wasn’t listed as such by the state while, with his science education degree, he knew how to look at studies and figures (or something like that).
I left a comment just on the part of his comment where he said how long he thought COVID had been around, citing one article from the Mayo Clinic and saying that it agreed with other articles that SARS-CoV-2 had been identified in early 2019, thus the identifier COVID-19. I also mentioned that, with my 30+ years working in a training program accredited, I could look at studies, articles, and figures and kinda figure things out.
Funny thing, when I went back to look at the post, his original comment and all of the comments responding to it were gone. Best guess—he couldn’t refute, so he deleted.
I can respect someone who does that a whole lot more than someone who makes some comment that’s totally wrong but keeps defending it—sometimes not nicely—despite multiple replies from multiple people refuting his claims.
Again
On a totally different topic, a guy yesterday was saying some negative stuff about an organization wanting to establish a casino here.
I refuted what he was saying and shared some positive information from personal experience. He came back with, “And you really believe that?”
I replied, “Yeah, I do,” and shared more personal experiences related to that organization and some that had been shared with us in conversation at our table during a community event by a government official (not affiliated with the organization) from the organization’s home area.
After I left that response, sometime later, I got a notice from Facebook that he had responded, so I went to look at his new comment.
It was all gone. He had deleted his original comment and, of course, that took all of the subordinate comments with it.
I’ve done it, too.
I have deleted comments that I have made in the past, relegating it and all of the replies and responses to responses to responses to the internet trash bin.
In every case, it’s been because the responses to my comments have gone off the rails, with no possibility of recovery—no amount of logic or referencing to reputable sources will change their mind or keep them from continuing to heap on their misinformation.
Credibility
One thing that I prized above almost everything else when I was working was the credibility I had with the people I taught. I was an instructor in an industry environment where we had new students on a regular basis, but also had continuing training with our customers on a more regular basis. In 2017, I had people in some classes that I had taught in the early 1990s. The credibility of what I was teaching was important.
I feel the same way about what I share online. I don’t share rumors or anything that is likely to be misinformation. For many of the “articles” I write, I include endnotes with the sources of the information. I even use a citation app to create those footnotes.
Demonstrate and establish
I’ve found that, on occasion, you can demonstrate and establish one’s position to a point where the other commenter(s) comes around. It’s rare.
What’s valuable though, is that other people also see and read what you’ve shown and, maybe, just maybe, some might see your point.
