All too often the school playgrounds insults start flying back and forth while a real and potentially interesting discussion is still taking place. As the thread starts to turn toxic there is a drift away from the thread, until soon enough the name-callers have it almost entirely to themselves, and it gets closed.

I'm impressed much of the time how patient in Joe and Co are in holding off turning off the light, maybe hoping the thread can recover, as can happen,

But I do get tired when people who clearly do have a real interest in discussing an issue they care about seem to lose any sense of self control and screw up a discussion in that way.

I am beginning to wonder if it might be intentional.