Debates in the blogosphere often involve accusations of bad faith. Positions are often dismissed as disingenuous, two-faced, and deceitful. In this post, I want to argue for the importance of taking a different approach: I think we should debate with a strong presumption of good faith.

  My first reason is that I think arguments made in bad faith are actually pretty rare in the blogosphere. Granted, we all have our own quirky perspectives. We all approach hot-button issues in different ways, and all of us occasionally say things that readers find wrong, silly, or outrageous. But in my experience, the overwhelming majority of those cases are real efforts to articulate honestly-held views.

  When that's the case, an accusation of bad faith is like a poison. To all but the most partisan readers, the accusation will come off as a lame non-answer: "you don't really believe that" will sound like an excuse not to articulate why the position is wrong. And of course it only makes the person you're arguing against angry and less likely to take you seriously. In a disagreement, it's natural to treat nice people nicely and mean people defensively. Making a false accusation of bad faith just makes people dig in their heels.

  But wait, you're thinking: Some bloggers do in fact argue in bad faith. They really are disingenuous. Unfortunately, it does happen. But here's the thing: when it happens, pretty much everyone knows it. Most blog readers are pretty sharp, and they can see the signs from pretty far away. Pointing it out doesn't achieve anything.

  And besides, if someone is really making a disingenuous argument, it's probably pretty easy to counter it on the merits. If the person who wants to believe the argument realizes it's unpersuasive, it shouldn't be hard for you to show exactly why that's the case. And when you do that, it demonstrates the strength of your position much more than an accusation of bad faith ever could.