#logical fallacies

The reason I'm writing this is because once I started looking at these statements from that perspective, they lost a lot of the power to easily trigger my negative emotions. And it allowed me to chose how to respond. I tend to pick one of the following depending on the situation.

Generally, I keep scrolling if it's not directed at me personally. I recognize their argument isn't actually about me and it's not making a point about the media itself that I want to engage with. Plus, I'm in fandom because it's how I want to spend my leisure time. For me, that doesn't include fighting in the flame wars.

If the message is particularly vile or is directed at me and it's clear that it was sent with ill intent, I block them. That's the joy of curating my online experience.

If I decide I am going to engage, I always try to remember that we're probably evenly matched in how strongly we hold our disparate views. So if there's no chance they'll sway me then I probably have a snowflakes chance in Hell to change their mind. So I figure out what I hope to get out of the engagement, what is my goal for responding (and if it isn't particularly kind, I abort there). Then I try to keep that goal in mind going forward so I can avoid getting sucked into slinging insults that only manage to raise my blood pressure and ruin my mood and my day.

And then I remember that we are talking about media. Everyone is entitled to their own feelings and opinions. The world is a better place because we don't all like the same things in the same ways. I try to approach my response without ill intent. I tend to couch my responses in statements that make it clear I'm expressing my feelings on the subject, not facts.

After that, the conversation needs to leave the land of lashing out at others personally with false generalizations and back to a place of discussing the merits of the media in question. And if the OP isn't willing to engage in that manner, I usually bow out.

Which is why I think it's important to set my goal ahead of time. When I feel myself getting worked up, I can step back and ask myself what I want out of the conversation. Why am I spending my limited time on this if it's only making me upset?