Sealioning

‘Sealioning’ is type of bad communication, i.e. an invasive communication, where-in a person is seen to impress itself to another with a certain degree of unfriendly markedness such as through repetition of, or frequency of, queries, but essentially to the degree that an unneeded pressure on the one questioned seems apparent. It's basically non-empathetic communication. The purpose may be to attempt to make a point or to attempt to make it look like the one being Sealioned is in error or malpractice. E.g. the Sealion may ask for sources in a hostile way, in an attempt to trigger its target as opposed to trying to forward understanding in a reasonable manner. The Sealion's defining practice is a reference to reason in a subtle or not so subtle manner with the intent, conscious or not, of making its target somehow be at a differential disadvantage, as in a social scene where someone has been, as it were, shown to be wrong. It's simply a badgering of someone to make it somehow look like "aha, now I've got you!". 
Sealioning is occasionally confused with honest inquiries. Mischievously, honest people may be on purpose accused of sealioning, but it's possible to tell if the accused is a Sealion or not by the force of their action (e.g. if they are not showing any sympathy to their interlocutor; if they are rapid-posting with inquiries or judgments like "no that answer is not good enough"). 
Sealioning can be a type of derailing discourse, which can result in communication breakdown. 
== Branching ==
* Also spelled sea lioning and sea-lioning 
* Mode of communication: Ungenial; Invasive; Hostile; Unsympathetic. 
* Type: Quasi-subtle arguing; DoS attack; Mass attack. 
* Risk: Communication degeneration; Discourse degeneration; Communication breakdown. 
* Conducive to: Blocking; Bottlenecking; Stifling; Quality decline. 
* See more generally: Differential Accumulation through questioning; many and quick replies with queries in personal space; Disingenuous discourse; Transactional Analysis; Games People Play
* See even more generally: Argumentative Errors; Fallacies; Neologisms; Bad faith; Quasi-harassing
* Period: The age of discourse (prehistorical).
* Trivia: Cyberspace has been compared to a sea, and in the Middle-Ages lions were regarded by Templars as symbolizing those who would harass pilgrims.
Category:Psychology
Category:Communication
Category:Hostility