Selective denial - don’t fall for the bait Selective denial is when a poster on any social media, forum, Facebook wall, Twitter etc., makes such nonsense claims that it takes multiple times as many words (and links) to refute the nonsense posted, often in the altruistic hope of preventing any lurkers from falling for the errors of the poster. And that poster often ignores your response and moves on to pose another point, just as ridiculous as the first. Selective denial succeeds when it takes so much of our time and effort to refute such obvious juvenile nonsense, it takes us away from far more important Catholic issues and the duties of our state in life. When we fall for the bait, the duties of our state in life suffer - and our personal peace too at times. It is, on an orthodox Catholic’s wall or various Catholic social media and forums, often a form of demonic attack, even if that was not the original poster’s intention. I’m not seeing it here at MOG much at all now, but in secular social media it is rampant and increasing. Don’t fall for it. It’s too late in the game to waste our valuable time in efforts at “refuting” posts that are simply efforts at selective denial in the first place. Walk away, and be at peace.
You're spot on. These shills are generally members of certain movements or political parties driving a certain narrative. I've seen 'selective denial' on various platforms not just religious but mostly secular. I've often thaught why posters cannot see what this is. It's an attempt to muddy the waters and an attempt to steer the conversation away from the point.
Agreed. My "thing" is to sometimes make a comment ... and leave it there. If I think another person is sincere in their reaction, I'll discuss. But that's usually not the case. A lot of Protestants I've known since 2006 are VERY outspoken, even combative / argumentative with others (my Catholic fellows in this area are quiet and reserved). I've always felt that is a huge mistake and is one of the reasons we're in this gigantic pickle.
By the way, the social media “fact checkers” are often the greatest “selective denial” perpetrators of them all.
