Or do you see value in yourself? Do you see value in your own writing, your own thinking?
Are you critical of others? Or do you see value in others? Do you see value in others’ thinking/writing?
I am critical of both myself and others.
Value is not the result of being unable to criticize something/someone. As Kant said, we are valuable in and of ourselves, by virtue of being rational, autonomous beings. This means that every rational, autonomous being has value, regardless of its behavior/personality traits.
That being said, thinking critically is vital to arriving at any truth or reality in life. If one doesn’t think critically, one doesn’t put one’s beliefs through the necessary tests to see if they are worth holding. Just the same, we must do this to the statements/beliefs of others, to see if they are mistaken, trying to trick or manipulate us, or to see if they have a belief that is worth adopting ourselves.
The value of others’ thinking/writing is essentially in that it (ideally) causes you to think critically–it forces you to re-evaluate your own beliefs, and to evaluate theirs. Even if you are able to dismiss what someone else has written, at least your exercised your critical thinking, and have a logical, valid reason for doing so, as opposed to dismissing them out of hand because of their race, religion, background, or public record, etc.