Here's a thing: It's hard to convert someone to your position. It requires patience, openness, humility, and respect—even deference. And often, even if you come with all of that, it won't work.
But as hard as it is to convert someone to your position, it's easy to turn them against you.
So if you think someone should vote for Biden, and they're not planning to, the worst thing you can do is yell at them. The best thing you can do—in most cases—is ignore them. Only in a very narrow set of conditions is engaging with them the most useful, productive approach.
If you want Biden to win, as I do, go work to make that happen. Get off social media and find a thing that can help in a context where you have skills and energy and temperament to do good. Because yelling at leftists online isn't just a waste of your time, it's actively harmful to your cause.
(And yes, this is advice to myself, too. These last two weeks have put a spotlight on my social media posts that I've become accustomed to not having. I need to get better at defaulting to not engaging, even where I think there might possibly be a productive discussion to be had.)
Not to mention that some small percentage of those online leftists are trolls actively trying to drive a fracture in BIden’s 2020 coalition. Engaging with them helps their cause.
Folks on the left who won’t vote for Biden aren’t interested in who wins this, or any other election. They’re fighting a war they *should* know they’ll never win. There’s no convincing anyone like that. I’m much more worried about actual Democrats who will vote for Trump.
