Talking About the Problem vs Talking to the Problem
We recently spoke about the common error which is engaging with the likes of RT or the fallout of associating with Microsoft Lunduke (whom I never spoke to in my whole life; it was obvious all along what he is, even before he become more edgy and very extreme). The closest he ever got to talking to me was siccing a bunch of very nasty, very malicious trolls at our IRC networks earlier this year or siccing a bunch of very nasty, very malicious trolls at our comments section. Normal people would not associate with him, so he's left pandering to the 4Chan audience. Even the hard right does not wish to associate with him. Normal people or "normies" can distinguish between legitimate critics of real issues and people who just piggyback the criticism to interject right-wing or far-right politics (including anti-vaxx agenda; when we say "anti-vaxx" we don't refer to COVID-19).
Yesterday in IRC we had a discussion about why the strategy/ies of many others have failed; so they tried to play nice with or become friends with people who are neither nice nor friendly. That's kind of like saying, "I'll go on Fox News and RT to 'add balance' or to 'show them they're wrong'..." (of course they'll just edit our all the bits that don't suit their narrative).
It's just not going to work.
It is a lot like atheists trying to 'debate' theists; it ends up having to explain things that are rejected a priori and then explaining miracles, feelings etc.
If you want to reduce toxicity in the community, then there are many other approaches that can work. For the record, I repeatedly told RMS not to speak to these people, but he did anyway (or had already done so).
Having your 'mug' (face) in a "Lunduke" or "RT" anything isn't exposure to audience; it's a liability. It's hard to shake that off. Even many years later.
Alex Jones? Probably even worse.
Wanting an audience is never a good excuse for compromising one's values and principles. Say what you will about Techrights, it is very hard to say that the site ever associated with any rogue actors. All our guests in TechBytes were polite and amicable people.
Too many people take the bait and become targets. They clearly don't understand what fuels the toxin. █