Akin to playing Devil's Advocate, but worse. Whereas, on occasion, someone playing Devil's Advocate can actually help someone sharpen arguments and make them better, Sealioning amounts to the
meme of the little kid replying to every answer with, "Why?" The Sealion has NO interest in hearing any other side, OR of making substantial arguments of its own side. A Sealion
will often make empirically ridiculous arguments in the hopes of getting blocked online, which they incorrectly
define as "owning" the person who blocked them. In fact, on social media, if you
check the Sealion's replies, they're often cut-and-paste replies, frequently 100%
unrelated to the topic. The sole purpose is to suppress the free speech of actual people who might thwart the success of disinformation campaigns.
"Did that fan of Killer Kyle Rittenhouse actually repeat that old 'I
bet you didn't even watch the trial'
propaganda?"
"Of course. So I had to remind him that
yes, in fact, I did watch the trial, and Killer
Kyle never denied murdering those people. He admitted that the person who assaulted those peaceful protesters was him. He admitted that they used their Stand Your Ground rights to defend themselves against his threats. He admitted that he
shot at them --"
"Why do you even bother? They're clearly just Sealioning you."
"Of course -- which is a form of bullying, and letting bullies get away with bullying leaves people with the impression that the bullies were actually right, and we can't let that happen.
