seawhale
someone who engages in seaWHALING a NOT SO subtle form of trolling involving "bad-faith" questions. You disingenuously frame your conversation as a sincere request to be enlightened, placing the burden of educating you entirely on the other party. If your bait is successful, the other party may engage, painstakingly laying out their logic and evidence in the false hope of helping someone learn. In fact you are attempting to harass or waste the time of the other party, and have no intention of truly entertaining their point of view. Instead, you react to each piece of information by misinterpreting it or requesting further clarification, ad nauseum. The name "sea-lioning" comes from a Wondermark comic strip.
that person keeps derailing the discussion jeez, what a seawhale
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I spent five minutes asking polite questions, sealioning him into hours of writing until he got exasperated and told me to fuck off.
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I spent five minutes asking polite questions, sealioning him into hours of writing until he got exasperated and told me to fuck off.
seawhale by sunflower123124 October 3, 2020
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