Example https://lemm.ee/post/54155328/17905549 and https://lemm.ee/post/55188600
I have witnessed multiple people do this, and it never feels like it’s done in good faith. They assert that “Only Elon Musk knows what his intentions are, and unless he explicitly states what his intentions were, you cannot speak for his intentions”. They say that the accusation that he is a Nazi is slander for this reason.
I’m wondering what the name of this kind of tactic is. They’ll say “You cannot speak for another person’s intentions” while sometimes also saying “What was perceived did not match his intentions” and “The Romans also did that salute”. In the process they will also state several times that they are not defending Nazis and that they hate Nazis.
Getting stuck in wedge issues that their propaganda is currently targeting doesn’t usually make a difference, in my experience. The person you replied to made a point I find useful which is to get people to talk about the values they have beneath their positions. Often people can be led to contradict themselves if we ask enough curious, open-ended questions about what motivated their opinions.
The majority of people hold fairly progressive views on most issues, but are taught to be real mad about things that don’t effect them. They’ll try to argue about those things the whole time, and I don’t think it’s worth taking the bait.