When I saw you each engage at length with two of my most ...
   hm... "spirited" friends, I thought, "uh oh... I'm gonna lose
   them after this" and debate about stepping in, doing a "hey
   guys" and try to tie things together somehow.. or delete the
   thread if it got really bad. But then I realized that emotional
   turmoil is part of life and people battle passionately about
   what they believe in and everybody learns _something_ in the
   process, even if they end up punching a wall half-way through. I
   actually CRINGE when I get a reply on one of my posts from them.
   [there's a few others as well - they usually have conspiracy
   believing in common, but what the BAD ONES are different for
   each of them. It's often misogynist too, but I also have women
   who are of the "all men are [x], except for you Ken" as well, so
   I try to keep it balanced] I actually feel bad for them,
   honestly. It has to be hard being angry, fingers poised at the
   keyboard, ready to be offended at any given moment. All someone
   has to say is just the wrong thing and BOOM, like a race, it's
   on. I also understand the behavior because there are some topics
   I get that way about as well. I wonder, "I'm just making sense,
   why can't they see it?" and then I find my mind filling with
   stereotypes about them, filling in missing pieces about them
   with whatever portrays them in the worst possible light. But
   then I remind myself: we're all intelligent here. The fact that
   we're even ENGAGING in this online format means a LOT of things
   have to click into place for it to happen. We're humans. We're
   schooled. We feel as if we're rational beings and that our
   opinions matter. We can turn on a computer/phone. We can engage
   in conversation. We can be passionate and debate and portray
   emotional content using solely words or memes. That's pretty
   amazing when you think about the amount of coordination required
   for all of to be possible. So, approaching everybody I encounter
   with the assumption: This is an intelligent being whose
   perception of the world is different than mine but otherwise is
   not lacking in any ways that I'm not lacking as well. This isn't
   to say my way is best. I have no idea if it is. But it's my
   way... and I'm sorry if you both got dragged into it. I have the
   appearance of inconsistency but really it's because I don't
   explain myself properly most of the time smile emoticon