Still -- just as many heavy opiate users do so to ameliorate constant high levels of pain, and then become addicted, I think many of us got started in interenet news and political forums because the media and academia -- teachers and texts -- and thus the everyday commons level discussions we all encounter had become so painful to our natural truth senses. We were screaming inwardly in pain.
The mail-lists, the usenet, delphi forums, Jim Robinson's FR, etc were so liberating! Freedom! Truth! Understanding!
Yet a pleasure not without its danger. And here we are tdoay. Maybe the bad animus of the pack houndings, of the seemingly random and arbtitrary zotting, suspensions etc serves a good purpose. Like those anti-addiction medications that make one nauseous when one uses the drug he is addicted to. Maybe FR should take a sabbatical year -- one of seven. To break the bad habits.