Stumpjumper on the nature of disagreement in the blogosphere:

Some people simply cannot handle the possibility that their own private reality is not perfect. When challenged they lash out. Not with ideas but with anger. At best these people whine and claim that people need to be less serious or they get sarcastic and say that others simply do not understand. At worst they strike with rage and hate. They insult, belittle, demean, and threaten. At best they drive away readers, thus drawing their personal realities inward just a little tighter, restricting themselves and their world even more. At worst, they cause real damage to people and their personal lives, often suppressing the voices of others, driving them away.

Let me go on record to say that this phenomenon is not unique to the blogosphere, although our personal autocracies serve as high-power magnifiers for this behavior. There are people—real people like you and me—who find it un-fucking-believable that other people think differently. They are so self-absorbed in their idea of what they believe is right that the possibility of difference is a direct threat, not just their egos but to their own world views. This angerthat Stumpjumper speaks of is a result of evasion. Instead of reexaming one’s own beliefs (either in affirmation or negation) it is so much easier to deride a person for not thinking like you do.

Humanity really does follow the path of least resistance, hmmm?