It's a blog post, not a doctoral thesis
I recently had the joy of another blogger dissecting one of my blog posts. It really was sort of funny in a way. Something that I had written struck a nerve. Enough so that they actually dedicated digital real estate on their blog to tell people why they didn't like my post. (BTW, thank you Bear Blog analytics for including referring domains as part of the analytics package.)
Before I go into this a bit deeper, I enjoy reading lots of independent bloggers posts. Sometimes I agree with the post. Sometimes I don't. I've never felt compelled to quote and then critique another person's writing because I didn't agree with what they said.
I realize that bloggers are sometimes incredibly detailed in their arguments and others just write from a stream of consciousness. I have zero expectations that another blogger needs to support every viewpoint with facts, data, or lengthy explanations qualifying what they wrote and why they wrote it. It's a freaking blog post, not a doctoral thesis.
With that being said, back to the situation at hand. In a nutshell, the blogger "reviewing" my blog post "thought" he knew me and had me figured out as a person. I don't know why, but this line from one of my favorite movies popped into my head:
"But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart." (Robin Williams from the movie Good Will Hunting)
The key thing to remember is WE DON'T really know the life story of a blogger. To assume that you do by reading a single blog post is presumptuous at best and just plain stupid at worst. I started blogging again to escape the "crap" you run into on social media platforms, not just find it again "wrapped" in a self-righteous critique of something I wrote.
If you ever read a blog post and think to yourself that the arguments for this point of view aren't well thought out enough, the person didn't provide enough facts and data to support the premise, etc. etc. etc. just remember one thing:
It's a freaking blog post, not a doctoral thesis.
Until next time, take care...