Look, I understand. I have questioned your gospel so I am a heretic, and like a good zealot, you are casting your rhetorical stones my way. You know The Truth, and you can see into men's souls. It's not enough that I have ultimately agreed that this was a group spouting hateful things; because I have not adequately…

I'm not apologizing for anything. I'm parsing language.

Then you are incapable of having good faith arguments, and there's really no point in talking to anyone who doesn't agree with you, because they will always conveniently be lying.

I understand the path others take to get to 'hateful', I have not demeaned or dismissed them or their arguments, I've merely offered a variant path that would make these words something else: ignorant, yes; insensitive, yes; misguided, yes; but hateful is something else. I am not a perfect person; I have said stupid,…

I say nothing but.

I said given the information contained in this article - they have potato faces, tiki torches, and were saying "white lives matter" and "you will not replace us" - that it didn't quite achieve "open display of hatred". I didn't say it "is no big deal." People went on to provide further details that did get it to…

Bully.

I feel good. I feel like I've made a friend.

"No! It's not like that! I just saw all the tiki torches and thought someone was throwing a really kickass barbecue!"

So stupid is a defense now? I didn't think I was defending anybody; it was more a critique of poorly sourced reporting, but ultimately just a personal observation. (If you've read any of my other comments on this article, I've also called them "obnoxious," "ignorant," "insensitive," and "ugly.") Other commentators…

At least you've abandoned any pretense of having an actual argument anymore.

Exactly. Nobody who disagrees with you could ever be anything but disingenuous about their reasoning. If they weren't, you might actually have to engage with them as a person rather than reflexively dismissing them as "trolls" and willfully distorting their arguments to demonize them.

You called me stupid. That's a personal insult. You think my position is stupid, fair enough. Prove it. Argue against it. Reveal its stupidity through rigorous debate. But once you start slinging insults around, it stops being about the discussion and starts being about making the other person feel bad.

I'm not here to tell you how to feel.

ie I can't because you're not, and this is the best dodge I can come up with.

I'm not the one insisting I'm offering defense of a group I've called "stupid," "obnoxious," "ignorant," "insensitive," and "ugly."

Yes, anybody who has a difference of opinion with you is actually a secret "something" who is only doing it as a smokescreen for their hatred.

Yes, I know what people have explained, and they are probably right, but since they are not mind-readers, all this "I know what they really mean" doesn't quite meet the certainty standard. Since then, better, more concrete examples have been proffered, and I am on board with presumption of hatred.

Educate me. Point me to my bullying ways and show me the light. I want to learn and become a better person.

Did you read my comment, or is your Outrage! running purely on autopilot? All I said was that those two given phrases didn't clear my "open display of hatred" standard, which is all this particular article had to offer, aside from some wonderfully relevant personal appearance insults. The commentariat did go on to…