It runs: “If you grapple with every donkey you easily become one yourself.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was still the strongest influence on British philosophy when I did my degree at York, though his star has waned since then. His later work was rich in aphorisms of this sort.
Here he was foreseeing Twitter in this one and counselling us not to spend our time arguing with random strangers with foolish views.
I have stopped myself doing it. At most I will look at the replies to a tweet I strongly disagree with and like a few that have expressed my disagreement for me.
There are lots of sensible and interesting people on Twitter. Take the advice of Uncle Ludwig and spend your time engaging with them.
Another tip is to look at how many followers the person disagreeing has. Normally it is about 23. If one has more followers than that,then one is simply helping that person reach more people than they otherwise would have done, had you just let them stew in their own juice.
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