When did you or someone you know get into trouble only to double down and continue digging the proverbial shovel?

I got a former coworker an interview with my company. It was an IT job with an on-call rotation. During the interview, his phone chimes. Instead of apologizing and putting it on Silent, he pulls it out in the middle of the interview to type a reply. We ask what he's doing and he says it is work, he'll just tell them he's got a flat tire or something.

He later admitted that he had just gotten back from vacation and was severely jet-lagged, but let's just say he didn't give them a great impression. My team elbowed me for years about that one guy that I got to interview for the team.

Digging the proverbial hole with the shovel. (now, double down, OP.)

This describes me in literally every online argument I've ever had.

What helps me is remembering that some people aren't worth being understood by.

My son is 11, and this is a daily... or even hourly occurrence.

That would be a perfect description of Trump

Me getting banned from reddit for saying what child molesters deserve and then getting perma-banned for doing it again.

I assume you mean death, and in principal, I agree with you, however in practice it leads to two things:

one is a result of the current culture war that republicans in the states are waging, where queer folk are called child molesters simply for existing in public, and are therefore legally genocided.

the other results in actual child molesters killing their victims to remove loose ends
- Don't care about arguing it, when I say child molesters I mean people who have sexually assaulted a child . They banned me for that when people are saying the same exact shit about cops, business execs, and all sorts of people on there without consequences. The only conclusion to be drawn is Reddit Admins care about creating a safe space for child molesters more than pretty much anyone else. I even referenced a thread of dozens of people saying what they wanted to do to HP's executive who came up with their printer policy when I appealed my ban and they couldn't be bothered to address it.

What do you mean by that?

Say or do something. Experience negative consequences. Rather than owning it or admitting you did wrong, double down and deny or continue doing the thing that got you into trouble.