I respect anyone's personal choice to stay or leave, and this is in no way a judgement.

Good folks leave neighborhoods where there's a lot of unpleasantness. Their decision is based on their families, careers, and just how much they can tolerate. But if everyone who finds unpleasantness objectionalble leaves, no one left objects. As a newsgroup reader, I've seen groups assaulted by those who want to argue, call people names and be generally nasty. I've seen quite a few people give up on the newsgroups because of that, until most of the discussions turn into flame wars because few are left who want to be reasonable.

And now, for a bit of drift from the Department of Internet Communications Philosophy...
In my opinion, in internet communication, lack of words is more effective than opposing argument in ending hostilities. Most people (me included) find it extemely difficult not to add their .02, but there's no way faster to end a fight in a thread than to ignore it. Again, this is a personal choice - do you want to contribute to an argument or end it?