I've been reading a lot of topics that started out smart, interesting and insightful (ex. Просто о политике, Healthcare Reform, Sex and Politics, etc.) and eventually they all turn into name calling and finger pointing.
Here is what I propose: instead of saying things like "you're a conservative therefore you want to own slaves" and bringing the topic to a halt, come to this topic and call anyone you like any names you want, spew out any crazy statement you want etc and then go back to the topic of interesting and post actual measured argument there
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you can't always eat lobster, sometimes you gotta have fish (so says my son)