If I'm standing in a circle with you and three other people and I start talking about you like you're not there, about how what you just said is really stupid,

If I'm standing in a circle with you and three other people and I start talking about you like you're not there, about how what you just said is really stupid, about how I can't believe you'd ever say something like that -- we all understand why that's rude. But that's exactly how a retweet functions (and it's how a lot of twitter threads function, too (when somebody starts addressing somebody else in the thread about a third person as though they aren't present)). I try very hard not to operate my twitter presence that way and yet I catch myself doing it, too, because it's how twitter is built!