There may be an age or generational explanation for this, but I especially notice this behavior on Reddit while not nearly as much here on Lemmy (though maybe that’s also a mater of implementation).
It seems many are so quick to assert overly-confident positions, but then hit-and-run with some smarmy remark at even the slightest challenge, then quickly block. Like, not even crazy stuff. Just basic, civil disagreements. I can pretty well predict when it will happen, and it always feels like such a petty ego-sparing fingers-in-ears denial thing to do, and to me if anything shows they were not very confident in their views being challenged.
I think I’ve only blocked a handful of people over a decade who were actively spamming, stalking, or spewing extremely hateful rhetoric and I just reported them simultaneously. You have to cross a pretty extreme and irrational line for me to do that.
The reason I ask is to see if I’m missing something; to better understand the mindset of those who do.
I’m getting older and more tired. I don’t have the energy to deal with what is a high chance of intentional trolling, misinformation, or smearing. People intentionally twisting my words to be politically opposite of what I said has been on the rise over the last year or two, and I simply dint want to interact with people who are malicious or blindly support what someone says without actually reading the context.
The real world is already shit. I don’t need to interact with these people online too.