I decided long ago not to respond to every person who wants to argue with the things I publish. I don’t want to be dismissive, but it’s rarely helpful to read the comments section of your own work. It’s like reading reviews. That said, I read all the comments. I just don’t choose to engage in rigorous debate over every one of them.
All too often, the response is based on a misunderstanding of the point I’m making, either because they didn’t read the article very carefully, I wasn’t clear enough, or they just immediately jumped to their own conclusions based on past personal experience. In these cases, they’ve usually left the field of play and would like to argue about something completely different than I intended.
That’s a deal breaker for me. If my piece has inspired you to disagree, write your own. No need to tell me about it, post your article in the comments, or tag me in your response. I’m not going to read it. You’re free to disagree, but don’t ride my coattails to do it.
On this particular piece, I’m struck at how personal some of you have taken it, and how free you’ve felt in attacking me personally. Tells me quite a lot about who you are and what your needs and fears must be.
What’s worse, is that because some of you felt I unfairly “attacked” liberals by suggesting that inclusion can have adverse side effects, you assumed I was “on the other team” and so was fair game for your recriminations. You built an entirely made-up personality for me based on your incorrect assumption that I was a right-winger, libertarian, or other fascist nut.
We should be much more wary of deciding what we will agree or disagree with based on where we think the author stands. We’re not nearly as confident in our views as we think we are. We want to know what company we’re in before we decide to agree or disagree. That’s a fundamental failure, but all too common.
Finally, many of you took my objection to unathletic kids playing organized sports to mean that they shouldn’t be active at all. Running is only a sport if you’re competing. Anyone can run, but if you enter a race, especially as part of a team, you will be judged on your abilities. You can run, walk, swim, or climb without making it a competitive endeavor. But not even close to what I was talking about. I’m glad you’ve discovered the secret to human activity.
Mostly, I’m happy that so many of you engaged and used your brains to think critically about a subject you probably weren’t thinking about.
P.S. If you can’t be bothered to upload a profile image of some sort, I won’t respond no matter what you say. It’s like coming to my house not wearing any pants.
