Have intelligent friends and colleagues, spend much time online connected to them, and you’ll inevitably witness engagements on their part that could be rather disappointing. Tendentious, ill-informed, polemical posts, videos, or pieces, ill-spirited exchanges, and the like. That can prove a real challenge, if you’re expecting them to be more than they are, let alone if you harbor very unrealistic, perfectionist ideas about them. I’ve gotten to the point where I just chalk most of them up to “well, that’s so-and-so, great with X, but out of their depth with Y”, and focus on what they have to say about X. It’s quite all right to maintain that sort of reserve and space. Friends and colleagues don’t need to be even remotely close to perfect people. I know I certainly am not myself, and my attitude tends to be “We agree about A, but don’t like what I have to say about B? Well, you got yourself a choice to make then, don’t you friend?