A 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.

I think the term is silly and there should be a better one for this concept, but lacking a better one I guess this will do. I'm sharing my learning so that others may learn from my experience.

also, now I fucking hate sealions, and I'm not happy about it. They used to be fucking cute.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The term comes from a webcomic, I doubt real sea lions act like this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Now that I've seen the context, I really hate sealions, and I'm no longer sad about it.

fuck sealions, and I'm glad I now have a word for some shitty behavior that has annoyed me to no end for years.