I must confess that I am completely mystified by what appears to me to be a hysterical response to a very little bit of bickering. ET is the most polite and sensible discussion site I know of, with pretty much universally well-reasoned arguments and calm conversation.

Is this sensitivity to inferred insults and poorly founded statements a European thing? What is it like in other European blogs? From my American viewpoint, things are almost soporifically quiet in here--even during the most "violent" of disagreements.

In comparison, think of DailyKos, which has more than its share of stupid fights. Or, let me point you to another blog that I frequent*, http://www.nasioc.com/forums. This is fundamentally a car site, sponsored by Subaru enthusiasts, but their most popular forum is the Off Topic forum (at almost the bottom of the forum front page). OT is a general discussion area, and has attracted a wide audience for some not-so-clear reason. This site experiences high volume with a claimed maximum of 9025 maximum simultaneous users a few months ago.

Here's what passes for discourse on this blog:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1575413

Now I'm not going to argue that ridiculously ill-informed, biased, over-the-top arguments between twenty-somethings should be the yardstick against which ET is measured, but it sure seems to me that there is a bit of oversensitivity here...

What exactly is the problem?

* Why would asdf frequent such a blog? Because it's important for old geezers to keep in touch with the thinking and viewpoints of youngsters. There are useful discussions embedded in the noise....