It seems to me that these discussions always trend towards something like "why are all the people complaining about witch burning so witchey?" I won't defend t

It seems to me that these discussions always trend towards something like "why are all the people complaining about witch burning so witchey?" I won't defend this guy, I believe you regarding the baggage, I just think that ignoring voices like that is part of the problem here. I've disagreed with you many times on many things, but I still think it's worth listening to you because you have a point of view that merits serious consideration that should not be dismissed without looking past the speaker to the content of what is said. We often talk about 'filter bubbles' but the most important one has always existed in our own minds. It becomes an issue when we end up marking serious points by serious thinkers as if they were mere spam that we don't want to do any intellectual work to deal with. This isn't to suggest that we can read and consider everything by everyone, attention is always going to be limited, but we need to be aware of our own spam filter that we're avoiding dealing with all the people saying X because we find the idea dislikeable, leaving us with a less-considered position on the subject.