There may be an age or generational explanation for this, but I especially notice this behavior on Reddit while not nearly as much here on Lemmy (though maybe that’s also a mater of implementation).
It seems many are so quick to assert overly-confident positions, but then hit-and-run with some smarmy remark at even the slightest challenge, then quickly block. Like, not even crazy stuff. Just basic, civil disagreements. I can pretty well predict when it will happen, and it always feels like such a petty ego-sparing fingers-in-ears denial thing to do, and to me if anything shows they were not very confident in their views being challenged.
I think I’ve only blocked a handful of people over a decade who were actively spamming, stalking, or spewing extremely hateful rhetoric and I just reported them simultaneously. You have to cross a pretty extreme and irrational line for me to do that.
The reason I ask is to see if I’m missing something; to better understand the mindset of those who do.
You say “civil disagreements” but from what I’ve seen blocking mostly happens when they sidestep the issue with a personal attack or ad hominid response.
Also I’ve seen some blocking just on people being associated with known bad actors like hatemongers or somebody’s stalker
This is what makes me block usually, a personal attack. Fallacies are hit or miss, I usually use them as an indicator to just disengage cause its not worth the effort, but personal attacks are an immediate yea this isn’t worth it and block