I just wanted to make clear that I’m not one of those people who must dislike a person to argue with them, nor does an argument necessarily become my whole reality of how I view someone. I think Vaporware is an awesome person who has made significant contributions to IF despite my disagreement and arguments with him over GG. Some people tend to let a negative element of a person’s personality become the entirety of a whole person. Despite my occasional emotional grumpy flameout moments, I try not to hold onto that.
And I enjoy debate. I probably should have been a lawyer, because my friends accuse me of becoming the Devil’s advocate just to nail down a point. I learn from every interaction I have with people.
FWIW, I never thought that there was anything more serious going on than a clash of worldviews, backgrounds and context in your discussions with Vaporware. You two happen to be particularly vocal, passionate and argumentative in a positive way. Your discussions make for interesting reading - both of yous.
Yeah, it’s difficult to sort through everything. While I’m not a big fan of profanity, The term rat****ing has been a huge help to me in terms of saying, it’s time to step away when I see this happening. It makes it hard to sort out the truth, and it makes everyone look bad.
Have you heard/read the quote from Cardinal Richelieu?
“If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.”
This is at once a relief (if you’ve been on the wrong side of it, nasty people -are- this way) and disappointing (yeah, people can be this bad). But it helps me get perspective when insults are flying, and it helps me take a deep breath when considering arguments.
