Robert,
Thanks for your comments and compliments.
I try to keep my debating tactics sane for the reason that I don’t want to encourage hate myself. I’ve come to the point that hate doesn’t promote anything useful to me. So I avoid engaging in hate.
I have found, especially on Facebook, that people will poke back even when I’m even-handed and nice. If they are angry that’s on them. They get to sleep with that. They have to live in a brain that does that. And when they do, I’ll be busy enjoying my day, just as before.
I prefer to take the higher ground and de-escalate. I don’t bother with insults and other tactics to rouse the emotions of others because I want them to think, not to hate. I have found for myself that it is difficult to think rationally and hate at the same time.
I read your article about paranoia and I think you are spot on. You describe the reasons why I don’t make accusations of others. I may make statements that expose logical lapses in their statements, but I don’t accuse them of anything. I just stick to the facts.
And all that emotional rhetoric on Facebook has made me tired of debate there. So I just keep track of my family on Facebook and leave the debates to the addicts. If I post something anywhere, it will be here first.