I'm so sorry for your loss. If there is anything I can do?

Thus ends my first post/mini-rant. No idea if I will ever post again (again, terrible at SM), but I wanted to at least get this off my chest. Stay safe, drink lots of water, get some sun, touch grass.

If you want discourse, let's be clear and honest about the framework we are operating under. Otherwise, it just feels like you want an opportunity to affirm your own rightness, no exchange ideas. If my own mental well being is important to you, you will respect my boundaries.

I find it distressing to hear smart people act as though my setting boundaries of what I will not engage with makes me lesser. If I thought they wanted honest discussion it might be different, but the veneer of self-righteousness is very apparent, not inviting in the least.

We all have to do what we need to protect our own mental well being. Not just mental health- If I refuse to engage with someone I believe is fundamentally incorrect, it is not because I don't care about them as people. It is because I am not up to the lift of discourse.

Granted, I'm as guilty as the next of not wanting to engage in oppositional views - though I avoid it because it generally feels oppositional in tone, rather than inviting discourse. And these days there doesn't seem to be anything but slippery slope.

People are not looking for real engagement but for a chance to stifle others in a bid to make themselves feel better. If others have to be wrong in order for you to be right, what purpose does that sort of absolutist thinking serve? How do people expect to learn?