[starbase]

[I'd say that some of the most effective (even if vicious) criticism is mockery: for example, political cartoons. It cuts through pretense and hypocrisy. Satire can be extremely vicious, pointed, accurate, and constructive.]

You're right again. I meant "effective" in the Socratic sense of not intentionally offending or harming the participants in the dialog but rather lifting everyone, in a gentle fashion, to a higher intellectual level. That's my personal goal of effectiveness.

"Effectiveness" is also a measure of how powerful the response is, I agree.

[Right Wing Professor]

It's funny, we never hear all these complaints about mockery when someone posts a Mark Steyn column (and Steyn mocks like Ted Williams hit a baseball). It seems it's, as usual, a question of whose ox is gored.