To be clear, I am ALWAYS ok with somebody questioning me. Even if you hold opinions that I don’t believe in or that I think are harmful (i.e. terfs) if you have a problem with one of my posts I’m fine with you commenting on it. I’ll probably shut you down because most of the time my opinions are pretty thoroughly thought out, but I will consider your concerns and try to have an actual conversation with you.
Here’s the catch: You must be in good faith.
For those of you that don’t have a lot of experience with good vs bad faith, here’s a crash course. A good faith criticism is a) based on the actual words on the screen, not what you think they might insinuate, b) worded kindly and thoughtfully, with any attacks being on the argument, not on me as a person for presenting the argument, and c) with good, constructive intentions. There’s not really much of a concrete way for me to tell that last one, but I can tell the other two pretty easily, and the third is really more of a way for you as a commenter to consider if you are in good or bad faith.
TL;DR I like it when people question me and open up conversation, but I can tell when you’re doing it to start a conversation vs. when you’re doing it just to try to clap back or disprove me. If it is the former, I’ll indulge you no matter what views you have; if it’s the latter, you’re getting blocked without a second thought.
