Why I rarely bother to argue on the internet..

I recently noticed that one of my earlier blogs was posted on Liberty Post and initially thought to myself "cool, lets read through the comments and see what folks had to say" to my chagrin, and sadly, complete lack of surprise, I saw in most of the comments, not much intelligent debate, mostly the tossing around of insults that most wouldn't have the balls to say to anyone's face, and frankly, complete and total disrespect for the opinions of others. No matter who you support, I may disagree with you, I may even become frustrated by your perspective, but if you've done your homework and from that arrived at your viewpoint, that alone is respectable, it's far beyond what most Americans bother to do these days. This is a classic example of why I generally get annoyed and fed up with internet "debates" as they aren't debates at all. "Sling mud and all you do is lose ground" and "arguing on the internet is like running in the special olympics, even if you win, you're still retarded" come to mind. Responses like many seen on the Liberty Post are part of the reason I've become so cynical about political debate. Show me an intelligent argument, even if I disagree with it, I'll consider it ("It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle) toss around insults, and you become nothing but another troll to ignore, bringing nothing of merit to the discussion. Sadly, most discussion one encounters online has eventually devolved into nothing more than showing who can mock the other, rather than an intelligent, respectful, grownup exchange of facts that pertain to the matter at hand, proving my earlier piont to the hilt. When did political debate devolve into "My daddy can whoop your daddy"??
/rant