Reply #17: it's best to assume goodwill until proven otherwise

[sui generis]

it's a lot easier on your blood pressure and anxiety levels. Ask a hundred people what they think a feminist is and you'll get a hundred answers - so assuming the crash position without a reason to is just a waste of heartbeats . . . and goodwill.

Of all the things we should never be ashamed of, celebrating our humanness and our diversity in the space of the few heartbeats we are allotted is at the top of my list. Plus the older I get the more I realize that assuming ill will without a good reason actually causes ill will.

It's odd that it happens as frequently as it does on DU no less! Plus, any label we put on ourselves in advocacy of anything is really a role, and not an identity. It's like a hat or a suit - it's not the label on the hat that matters so much as how well you wear it . . . and nobody wears the same clothes all the time.