What exactly is sealioning?
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Here’s an (imperfect but real-life) example: A person in a subreddit asked “Is it sketchy if a guy in his 50s is dating a woman in her 20s?” And I posted a comment saying, “It’s sketchy. That’s not the same as wrong, but yeah it’s sketchy. It’s a yellow flag for sure.”
And somebody who was not OP commented, saying, “What’s your source? What studies did you base this on?”
I replied that there’s often a power imbalance between older men and younger women that can be exploitative.
“Do you have proof for that? You are making baseless claims! As the person who is making claims, you bear the burden of proof.”
I asked, do you think these relationships are generally healthy? Is that your experience?
“I’m not the one making claims! I have made no claims of any sort, and bear no burden of responsibility. YOU are the one who brazenly accused these people of having an exploitative relationship. YOU are the one who has judged them guilty without so much as a shred of evidence. I’m only asking for you to provide any evidence–any at all–that this person is doing wrong. And if you have none, then your conscience must direct you to desist. And may I be so bold as to suggest you mind your own business rather than making baseless accusations?”
In my book, this is sealioning. It was an aggressive form of sealioning, but note the “I’m just asking for evidence! I’m just asking you to bear the burden of proof for your claims, which is established need in our society!” flavor of it.
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