I've been having a hair-pullingly maddening debate with someone on a message board about my paper on "Natural-Objective Ethics" (see my philosophy site). Normally, if someone is just too far out of whack, using completely nonsensical logic or using insulting tones, I simply ignore them. This guy started out fairly reasonable, but now it's getting to the point of repetition, and he just doesn't "get it". He keeps firing back instantly, restating things as if I haven't answered them, instead of addressing my answers to them. What's worse is that I think his emotional attachment to ethical relativism is clouding his ability to think logically. But he's staying just on the cusp of that borderline where I will or won't start to ignore someone!
I have been so temped to retort with smartass remarks or Ad Homonym, but I keep reminding myself to try and stay civil. Nothing will be accomplished by being aggressive or insulting. That will just raise his "defenses" and then no real communication will be possible. It's quite hard, but it's the right way to behave so I will continue trying.
Still, he's starting to get to a point where he's just trying to trap me into using phrases he can turn against me, rather than truly trying to communicate anything or reach mutual understanding, so I'm about ready to cut it off. When I do, though, I'll try to stay nice. Errrrrrr!
Edit: On a side note, I should probably mention that he may be pulling his hair with me too, and to his credit, he's been civil as well.
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