I think a good principle for critical people - that is, people who put a lot of mental effort into criticism - to practice is that of even-handedness. This is the flip-side of steelmanning, and probably more natural to most. Instead of trying to see the good in ideas or people or systems that frankly don't have much good in them, seek to criticize the alternatives that you haven't put under your critical gaze.

Quotes like [the slight misquote] "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried from time to time" epitomize this, and indeed politics is a great domain to apply this too. If you find some set of ideas wretched, it's probably easier to see the wretchedness in your own cherished ones than to find the positive view of others.

It's a good way to harness that cutting, critical impulse many of us have towards humility.