Just Block

I’d like to briefly talk about blocking people online.

Social media provides a variety of ways, depending on the platform, to filter what you see. I have a tendency to underuse those features, probably due to an impractical level of adherence to the idea that hearing other viewpoints is healthy, and even a responsibility.

That’s just the sharp end of the paradox of tolerance, dressed up for the internet. Yes, exposure to alternative viewpoints is a key opportunity for perspective and growth, but not all kinds of exposure are created equal. Combative people, and those acting in bad faith, impose an undue cost against that nominally-constructive principle. You don’t have to get your exposure that way.

People have — or should have — the right to freedom of speech (though see the paradox of tolerance again), but they don’t have the right to be heard. They can say whatever they like, accepting the consequences of doing so, but nobody has the right to put their thoughts into your head against your will. Framed that way, the distinction becomes clearer.

Argumentative voices will always be loudest, and the most amplified; that’s in our nature. Pragmatically, then, we have to be more active in countering their intrusion into our lives. What I’m leading up to is just this:

Whether online or in real life, you don’t need a justification to refuse to hear someone; no more than that person needs a justification to speak in the first place. In real life, after all, you could turn and walk away. That’s your right, too, and it’s inextricably linked with the other freedom.

Online, I find it’s best to just block. Don’t engage. Block early, and block without compunction. Block at the first perceived transgression of sufficient objectionableness. It’s only the internet, and it’s only a voice. It’s the lowest of stakes.

You have no obligation whatsoever to hear someone else, and the kind of person who feels uneasy about that statement (myself included) is exactly the sort who will have their scruples used against them by those who speak and act confrontationally, or who don’t extend equivalent courtesies to others.

You don’t have to give an accounting of your choices in filtering what you see. And I’ve learned to be cautious of those who, with good intentions or otherwise, demand such a justification.