A fire engine never stops to respond to the yapping dogs. It stays the course regardless of their number or the loudness of their yapping. The driver does not even look at them, for to do so would be a distraction which may cause an accident.
It takes a lot of your attention to respond to criticism. Attention that does not yield a productive result but takes your attention away from your goals.
The worst among us do not produce, they seek to destroy and take as many down as they self-destruct.
One characteristic of them is that they are constantly involved in warfare of one sort or another.
So if you take up cudgels against each and every critic or attacker you are not only diverting your attention away from you own goals but you are by your actions, consigning yourself to that group of people from whom you would most like to stay separate.
I read recently that nobody ever wins an argument. By arguing with someone it just causes his viewpoint to become more fixed.
I looked back on my time involved in discussions with people and realised the author spoke sooth. I had never ‘won’ an argument. I had never changed someone’s mind by presenting ideas and data contrary to their position.
I, too, have fallen victim to the desire to ‘set the record straight’, to engage in communication with the person themselves to correct perceived inaccuracies, or worse, lies. I have also, like you, told my circle of the lies in an endeavour to keep them accurately informed.
One of your most powerful assets is your communication lines. Whenever you forward a lie, untruth or false data on your comm lines you are using those comm lines to forward your detractor/enemy’s message. In other words you are empowering their communication. You should not do this.
By all means advise your good works on your comm lines, inform your circle of the truths that will counter the enemy’s lies, but don’t put the enemy’s communications on your lines.
The other factor is that the opinions people form are just as much a result of where they are ‘at’, maybe much more so, than the data to which they are exposed. So if someone goes through life choosing the believe every false report and malicious rumour, any rebuttal from you will be disregarded by them.
In short, the best advice I can give is, for each area of your life, to work out what the product is you are most desirous of producing then align your activities with the production of that product.
By all means respond to an enemy campaign but mainly by the production of PR (Public Relations) pieces that dispel lies and demonstrate your effective cause, your good works.
As an example of purposes and products:
My purpose in life is to understand.
My secondary purpose is to raise others to a higher level of awareness, ability, intelligence and competence.
My two purposes with social media are
“To broadly disseminate truth and wisdom.”
“To brace, inform, arm and reassure the Remnant.”
So my product in life is is an individual who is more aware, more intelligent and more competent.
Appealing to the Remnant Rather Than The Masses
This is a resoundingly good listen for those who are aware and who despair of the masses. I see no indication you fall into that category nevertheless you too may get something from it but even more likely, you will come across people for whom it is very relevant.