No one "forms their own opinion" in a vacuum. Your beliefs and opinions are influenced in a multitude of ways by your environment including the media you consume. Asking how the biases you have were formed is something everyone should be asking of themselves, and certainly doesn't seem like an inappropriate question.
Of course opinions are shaped by outside factors, but the reason those kind of responses are annoying is because they're just so... uninteresting.
I'm not the guy from above, but responding with "I disagree with you so are you sure your opinions are your own" is dismissive and doesn't lead to a more interesting or thoughtful discussion. Instead, asking WHY he believes gives you the opportunity to engage in the discussion, maybe change your views a little or change the other persons' a bit.
That's why comments like that are annoying, they're a way to dismiss discussion instead of engaging in it, and engaging in discussion is the point of this silly site.
I'm someone who also isn't wealthy and disagrees with wealth taxes. Responses like that one aren't an honest attempt to engage, and I'd also ignore it and move on :)
How do you get at how a person has formed their opinions without asking and it being taken as a slight? There was no dismissal or disagreement. Just an on-topic question.
Problem is that it's a subtle accusation of speaking in bad faith or an accusation of lacking agency. In order to have respect for the other person, you can't start from either of those positions.
Original comment was pretty threadbare, just “wealth taxes wouldn’t affect me but I don’t want them”. It’s worth knowing why they think that, especially if it’s getting upvoted so much.
We have to be able to ask these questions and assume they’re not attacks to have productive dialogues.
