Erica Friedman’s answer to What distinguishes honest questions from sealioning?
Coda: Another version of this same question (ah, irony!) asked what made sealioning different from Socratic method. Socratic method – as Socrates executed it – is a completely different form of trolling, but do not doubt that it was trolling. Socratic method – as Socrates executed it – is meant to lead an unclear thinker to deny the position they initially took with slightly misleading questions. It is no more sincere than sealioning, but is a different form of being a jerk.