"...one of the reasons I frequently break ranks with my natural political allies here"--If I knew it was that easy to control LH's opinions ;-)...

I think the reactions to stupid shit like this are because it's stupid shit. Somebody comes in and says, in effect, "This person is manipulating you people because you're too stupid to realize what he's doing. It takes someone as enlightened as me to recognize the truth. Let me explain to you poor naive people."

People tend to resent that sort of approach. Personally, I think that I'm already a bit ahead of people who believe it's likely a lot of other folks can fall for that shit. They DO fall for other types of manipulative shit, and this thread is a perfect example. Of course, if you KNOW someone's trolling and you still want to play with them, it's the suckers who try to stop it who really are the manipulated. Maybe.