>
> On Nov 3, 2009, at 2:46 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
> Doug thinks I enjoy pissing on Michaels. I did at first. But I've
>> changed my mind.
>>
>
> Glad to hear it. Maybe it's the result of having a kid who looks for the
> good side of everything, but my outlook on life has changed in the last few
> years. My initial instinct used to be, "What's wrong with this?" I'm not
> like that anymore (except for Stanley Aronowitz) - or at least I try not to
> be. In the Michaels thread I was really struck by how many people wanted to
> zero in on how he's wrong - mining his book for odious quotes, for example -
> rather than listening to what was interesting, or productive in his
> argument. The wild vehemence of the reaction reminded me of something that
> Scott McLemee once said about getting shrunk. You zero in on the stuff that
> makes you feel most uncomfortable.
>
>
This.
I can be pretty critical (I think), but I find myself tending to look for what there is for me to like/ make use of in what I read. I'm much more interested in that (unless I'm reading Tom Friedman, I guess).