I think we should try to be more careful, not to automatically assume that everyone who is asking questions here about China/Ukraine etc. is always arguing in bad faith. I’ve seen multiple people who were genuinely trying to ask something here and the only response they got was mockery.
I do understand that a lot of times people who come here are trying to troll or just be annoying, but we still should try to engage in them in good faith as long as there is no reason not to do so. Not everyone who isn’t from Lemmygrad is someone hostile to our ideology, and we should try to be kinder to them.
In many cases I think that it’s still worth it. Even if someone does not engage in good faith, we can still explain ideas in accessible ways not necessarily for the benefit of the post office to which you are replying, but for the benefit of onlookers. I’ve heard discussions at length, especially in the context of twitter, that making arguments for the audience is an effective strategy at convincing people who may be on the fence.
No even if the only thing we can communicate is that we are not unthinking drones paid by the CPC, this can go a long way in promoting an interest in Marxism.
Others being said, I think anyone is perfectly justified in not engaging with trolls simply because it’s not your job and you don’t want to do it.
To be honest, I am not really sure if this strategy makes sense here. I don’t think there are that many onlookers when you are arguing on Lemmygrad. If you are commenting on another instance that is a different story, but here, I doubt it.
That would be interesting data to take a look at. I assume most use lemmy similar to myself, where you mostly scroll through all federated instances and don’t pay attention to the source unless necessary (except lemmygrad). But I’m open to being proven wrong.
I sort by local and new, I’d rather engage with all the content posted from comrades first before wading into the hordes of liberals