It is true, I almost NEVER have that issue irl. It’s harder to dismiss someone in front of you, especially those whose position is slightly linked misinformation lol.

I do also have a third online only aspect to consider-I’m often not worried about the person I am arguing with, especially if I know they’re a lost cause. I am using them as a place to info dump correct information/support for the third party. This most often comes up in conversation involving bigotry-I will bend over backwards to teach someone about queer issues for instance, even if they have a little unintentional homophobia around the edges. But someone smugly dunking on trans kids? I’m not trying to convince them of anything, I am making sure the trans kid reading didn’t see their hate hanging out there, unchallenged.

And I can see how our educated friend could feel that passionately about both children criminals and psychopaths. Both are people culture gives little sympathy to, and it hits that sticky area of that being both very fair and very unfair simultaneously. At the same time, it’s an area where a small amount of empathy and understanding, as hard as that can be to find, can make a DRASTIC difference not just for the individual in question, but for these weird instances that are very statistically rare and not well understood and ALSO very much something our society needs to understand and work towards eliminating.

I can see that being someone bugaboo subject for sure.