It's not about opinions it's about decorum. You acted like a jerk I did not. That's the truth you can bring in whatever third party you want to adjudicate that if you somehow disagree and think that your response to me was even in the realm of respectful or you can do the typical cowardly hiding behind relativism schtick but deep down even you know it.
[warning: long rant ahead,
please read to the end before responding]
Sure it wasn't respectful, neither was your prior comment. You may well claim you've observed 'decorum' more than I have in our interactions and be correct, yet I reject that it would make your conduct 'better'. See, I feel like baseline respect is either there or not, and if it is not there then disrespectful responses are justified, and you've not had what I consider baseline respect for me since years ago if you even ever had, because, you see, I feel like when you discuss anything with another person, having baseline respect for them entails that you do not hold the implicit belief that you're right and they're wrong if they happen to disagree, but rather than both/all of you happened to arrive at different opinions by virtue of being different people with different ways of thinking and life experiences, and while comparing notes and exchanging opinions with each other, perhaps you may find or learn something interesting that you may not have considered otherwise.
Of course I do have ideas about what's true and what isn't, and when someone disagrees with those, sure I do not take their opinions seriously and I am well aware I am disrespecting them by doing so, which I naturally do consider justified in that case [like everyone else does, right?]. But I do think I genuinely try to limit my beliefs about 'objectively true statements' to what is indeed objectively true insofar that I cannot possibly fathom a way that it wouldn't be true. The tennis goat debate isn't it though, is it? Yet surely it is clear that many/most regular debaters here treat their opinions on this subject, and tennis stuff in general, like those were objectively true indeed, in that they do implicitly believe that they're right and those who disagree are wrong and thus worth disrespecting. And your comments over the years sure lead me to think that you're like that as well, in that you also implicitly believe you're right and those who disagree are wrong, hence you do not see merit in their opinions and disrespect them that way.
And of course I've acted like that here plenty of times too as I am well aware, but I do believe I am not inherently committed to such a belief, and am capable of rejecting it and engaging with different viewpoints with respect and on merit if they can possibly have any at all [i.e. if it is not something far enough out of left field that I "cannot possibly fathom" how it might possibly be true], as I believe I would like to do, but I do not want to do that if the person I am talking to does not reciprocate [where reciprocating entails eschewing an implicit belief that their opinions are correct and any possible disagreements are not, and engaging with different viewpoints with respect and on merit, too], and, as I said, by all accounts you do not appear to be willing to do that at all, as you consider your belief in the correctness of your views to be undoubtedly true and do not wish to relinquish it. Thus you do implicitly disrespect me, and I feel justified in disrespecting you back so long as this continues, insofar as I am disrespecting your opinions like you disrespect mine, rather than your personal life or anything.
Of course, it is plainly true that people of all fan allegiances do that here, including people who're overall 'nice' and follow 'proper decorum', which constitutes disrespect on their part, as I see it, but others let that slide so as to not antagonise and maintain 'niceness', plus it would be hypocritical to criticise them for it since pretty much every regular debater does it here. Still it is disappointing, but you cannot expect better from this forum, sadly enough. I do feel like I am extra incensed at you doing it, because you must be quite smart given your apparent ability to construct and express complex arguments, and you do appear to consider yourself a fairly 'morally good' person as well [correct me if I'm wrong...], yet for all that you're smart and believe yourself to be good, it seems to me that you allow yourself to be narrow-minded enough to reject the possible validity of opinions [and thus disrespect those who espouse them] that might yet possibly have a kernel of truth to them, in my estimation; in other words, it happens that you apparently cannot possibly imagine that a certain statement is true, and yet it may well be, hence you're being narrow-minded in that instance, which is also morally questionable since, if it is true, as I think, that you reject opinions that don't deserve rejection, then I think you're disrespecting others [those who hold such opinions] where they don't deserve it [they might well deserve disrespect for something else, but not in this particular instance], which surely appears morally wrong, right?
And you're not gentle about it; I mean, with someone like NatF, may he live long and healthy, I feel like he doesn't tend to poke those who don't poke others themselves, and is content to say 'agree to disagree', shallow as it is, and thus move on while avoiding explicit disrespect; but you do not mind telling others directly outright that their opinions must be wrong 'cause you just cannot possibly see it differenly, which is explicit disrespect indeed, as I believe it to be, anyway, and since I often disagree that what you consider unquestionably wrong is indeed so, then it follows that I think you're disrespecting those people unjustly, and then for you to tell me that I am acting like a disrespectful jerk, as if you didn't often act like one yourself, feels quite hypocritical indeed, all the more so since you're smart [which should allow you to combat personal bias and avoid such attitude] and apparently consider yourself good [which doesn't jibe with allowing unjust disrespect on your part]. As I alluded to early on, I do not believe the argument that I've been disrespecting you more than you've been disrespecting me is relevant; as [I believe] you've been consistently disrespecting me by disrespecting my opinions for a long time, me reciprocating that is fair and it is insignificant if I am being more abrasive than you are; "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen", or so it goes; but commit to not disrespecting me, and I will do my best to reciprocate that, too.
In general, it is plainly true that people of all stripes are wont to look down on others via disrespecting them by considering their thoughts and feelings devoid of merit [especially rife in contentious topics like politics, religion, morality and social norms...], something that the quote I have in my signature describes very nicely:
"We tend to resolve our perplexity arising out of the experience that other people see the world differently than we see it ourselves by declaring that those others, in consequence of some basic intellectual and moral defect, are unable to see the things “as they really are” and to react to them “in a proper way.” We thus imply, of course, that things are in fact as we see them and that our ways are the proper ways." I do feel like this is one of the few 'roots of all evil' in mankind [two of the others being capacity for schadenfreude and desire to dominate], and we humans would generally have a much more pleasant life if we learned not to feel that way, but alas, 'tis but a pipe dream yet.
Lastly, I want to point out that now you have a real opportunity to hurt me emotionally and make me feel bad by refusing to engage compassionately with what I wrote - what I believe to be a sincere stream of thoughts that reflects how I genuinely feel about things and that I feel strongly about - and perhaps lampoon and mock me by saying it's just a bunch of hypocritical excuses for being a jerk, or that I am indeed altogether wrong and simply fail to see the superior correctness of your opinions, or something else that somehow marks that you're better than me and/or that my thoughts and feelings thus expressed are indeed devoid of merit and not worth considering; and rest assured you will certainly succeed in making me feel crappy should you do so, but then I will see clearly that you're not interested in mending our interactions in any way towards peace and respect, and I will be driven to keep being hostile for the time being.
[Alright, that's it; I hadn't written such a long personal comment anywhere online or offline in over a year, took some effort...]
