"All I see most of the time here on this forum is very defensive egos engaging in cleverness. I see little goodwill, little attempt to understand what someone else is saying, little desire for finding things in common with others, little friendliness, little constructive comment....but instead a ravening thirst for some petty verbal victory over the other person"

Right on LH. You normally have an eye to see through the BS.

I would expect that a purpose could be to learn from others through reasonable debate. However, those interested in that have mostly left the thread awhile back...mostly to those who wish to win an argument on a position they already have firm opinions and others who innocently stumbled by, and are seen as fresh fodder to prove a point. And there are those who either don't get it, or actually enjoy the abuse :).