Dear Atheist Forums

[Shell B]

To revise my previous position...

I don't think calling a spade a spade does any harm.

No, it certainly does not, in either case.

What is a shame I think, is that people with good ideas get steamrollered in the rush. If everyone gets wrapped up in the party, then genuine questions and questioners become collatteral damage.

I don't know how you cure that.

In cases where it looks like that, staff is often communicating with the steam rolled person. It's funny, 9 times out of 10 they have a conversation with one of us about how they intend to let it slide, behave with dignity, etc. then they jump back in the forum and start dropping, "I'm leaving because atheists are idiots" threads. Believe it or not, very few genuine people, if any, are run off.

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Summer, in all of what I said, I hope you didn't get the impression that my fierce defense of freedom of speech does not extend to you. Perhaps I didn't say it, but I respect the idealistic approach. I love that you want people to be compassionate. I just don't see how any of us can know who is being compassionate and who isn't. We might all be thinking it's too bad this guy is an idiot before we post that he is an idiot. Speaking for myself, I always take into consideration a person's manner of speaking before I reply. If they say something stupid, but are very open and polite, I am not likely to call them stupid. Let them call me ignorant once and they are being called stupid seven different ways. That's how I roll.