It's not that I've anything against picking out other people's weak points, Wolfgang. I'm all for that. The problem is when we use that as a way of avoiding dealing with the things that have been picked out as our weak points. Politicians do that all the time, any time they feel themselves challenged about something they've done or something they've said.

That's even more so when the weak points we use in this way aren't actually weak points in the arguments of our adversaries, but essentially irrelevant vulnerabilities arising from who they are - "ad hominem" and all that. Or attacks by association.

I agree with Dave about the value of sticking in "it seems to me" and so forth. In a sense, of course, these are redundant expressions, because if it didn't seem to me that something was the case I wouldn't be saying it - but it takes the edge off it a bit, and goes some way to make up for the fact we can't see each other. And I find it a lot less irritating to read than these emoticons and IMHO and all that.