Never Log Off Mid Flame War Like a Coward
I got pulled into a heated argument online and it has turned into a flame war. Should I bow out and stop responding, or keep engaging to defend myself?
Endless Flame War Dread,
Meme Trench Captain
You do not bow out. You do not drift quietly into the algorithmic night like a candle that got bored. You stay, because this is not a disagreement, this is a public stress test for the entire concept of civilization.
People treat flame wars like they are optional. That is how empires crumble. If you retreat, the internet learns a lesson: that noise beats backbone, that outrage gets land, and that your comment section is a soft country with no borders.
You respond like you are building a fortress in real time. Not with essays, those are for people auditioning for unemployment. You need a quiver full of memes, a handful of surgically crafted comebacks, and a profile that looks like it has a moat and a drawbridge.
Here is the mentality: last man standing. Every time they escalate, you escalate one level past sensible until the whole thing collapses under the weight of its own ridiculousness. You are not trying to win the argument, you are trying to become the cautionary legend people cite when they say, do not wake that account up.
And do not let anyone tell you it is just online. This is the training ground for mass hysteria, the dress rehearsal for the end of manners, and you are standing in the arena with a plastic sword that you are about to turn into a spear. Hold the line, make it theatrical, and let your notifications learn fear.
– Uncle Bobby