[William A. Baurle]

I wonder how many in this thread have gone in private with Charlie, because I see accusations of him which I know for a fact are utterly false.

What bothers me tremendously is this word "trolling." I can't say it's directly aimed at Charlie, but if it is, it's just plain false. For those of you who've mentioned trolling, all I can say is you must not have had any interaction with a real Internet troll. I saw one belligerent soul shut down at least two newsgroups in a relatively short amount of time, with nothing but vicious and multitudinous posts that eventually no-one had any time for. This site is moderated, and it's almost impossible to troll for very long on a moderated website without being called out and banned. The days of the anarchic newsgroups are old hat, and the term troll has lost a lot of its punch. From what I can see when things get heated, the term is like any other ad-hom: applied when it's convenient, and getting no-one anywhere but stuck in useless anger and frustration.

So let's stop with the accusation, since it is entirely without basis. And ya know it, that's the frustrating thing! If you want someone to respect your argument, why not refrain from accusations that are clearly and demonstrably false? (That goes for all of us, of course.)

As for the danger of ideological thinking, it works both ways. The far Left can be just as lethal as the far Right. I brought up Russia, 1918, in a recent argument wherein someone asked why I said just that. His only real answer was, "well, that was a century ago," as if that meant anything. We are already seeing so-called peaceful protests erupt into violence. If the mob gets whipped up enough, they will stop at nothing. History has proven this, and whether the mob chant for the Left or the Right makes precious little difference. Extremists on both sides will eventually run dangerously short of restraint once their collective wrath builds to a breaking point.