See, and I draw a distinction between "extending good will" and "caving."

I can assume that my super-aggressive friend doesn't mean anything bad by it when she demands, for the seventeen time, that we eat at the restaurant that she wants to go to. But I can also say, "No, love, we're fucking tired of following your orders, this time we're going to eat Thai."

This will probably swell into a larger essay tomorrow, but assuming good will does not mean that you don't oppose. In some cases, it means you oppose it harder.

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I'll be interested to see that essay, then, if it does turn into one.

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Oh I agree that you can oppose them. But there comes a frustration break point when it is whether this is a discussion in good faith or not. If the last 17 times your friend says to go to a restaurant that you are allergic to and the friend keeps suggesting it then you moved beyond granting benefit of the doubt and good faith. </p>

There comes a time when it doesn't really matter if it is malice or ignorance.

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This.

There are things about which I can reasonably disagree. Twenty or thirty years ago, I feel like I could reasonably disagree with a lot of non-social conservatives about a good number of things.

Now, not so much.

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This.

When it was counting ketchup as a vegetable, I could maybe understand that they were misguided as to why that was a bad idea.

When they're suggesting that we not even so much as be allowed to abort already dead fetuses to save ourselves the "inconvenience" of a stillbirth, because stillbirth is alright for cows, they can just go fuck themselves. If I'm not human to them, I sure as hell am not going to give them the benefit of the doubt on good intentions.

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Exactly. And even on economic issues, I feel like it's gone from thinking, say, that lower taxes are good for everyone--which is wrong, but whatever--to a lot of self-righteous bleating about how poor people don't deserve help and rich people should be able to keep whatever they have.

I have a limited supply of goodwill. I need most of it to keep from killing people on the T, most days; I don't feel like wasting it on Corporations Are Awesome Guy.

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