"if you start by setting out to provoke and antagonise"

It's entirely an acquired skill from spending 60 seconds on Mudcat. Absolutism (good word Smedley) of the kind found here is rarely encountered in modern liberal democracies, at least without a barrel of salt. It's quasi-religious, old testament judgements handed down in unalloyed form on a daily basis from desert-minded fathers with a definition fixation. That's where my amusement comes from, not provocation but swing-jawed amazement of a 'did he really just say that' kind, over and over again.