Reader Yardley’s observation on the endless back and forth between a peculiar commenter and her critics here is worthy of Comment of the Day status, if only to make us pause to consider why we are arguing, and what we are really arguing about. Here is his observation on the Most Entertaining Ethics Alarms Discussion Ever…
“I can’t help but wonder what the value of such debates are once the primary points and counter points have been stated, and restated; then restated once again ad nauseum. I don’t have the answer of course, but it has got my wheels spinning. Maybe there’s merit in it, or maybe it’s about flexing our egos, or maybe it’s a sort of meme warfare… ideas battling it out for control over our brains. Certainly, it is entertainment! The most I can say is that the spectacle of it all somehow subtracts from content. Worse yet, at a certain point those on the rational side of the argument only serve to give status to the mistaken party. When a clash of ideas turns into a Hundred Years’ War, even the winners get a bloody nose.”
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Graphic: XKCD
Ethics Alarms 
That comic is from XKCD, so it’s probably more accurate to attribute it directly there.
Thanks, I’ll fix it.
Direct link to comic: http://xkcd.com/386/
It also natively has mouseover text that continues the joke (like all xkcd comics): “What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they’ll keep being wrong!”
Firstly, I’m honoured. Secondly, that’s one heck of a cartoon! 🙂
A classic!
I can say that for me, there comes a point when you give up on the other commenter, and instead just want to counterbalance out the stupid for future/current readers who may not be clear on logic.
Yes, I agree with this. It is complicated with Jane/Livvy because 1) she is such a juicy target, with all the hilarious New Age jargon, and 2) she kept coming back for more and leading with her chin. I admit to being surprised, based on her subsequent whining on her blog, that her feelings were hurt. I assumed she was enjoying annoying everyone.
She claimed hurt feelings early on in my responses to her. One of the tenets of her beliefs is that criticism is inherently wrong. It hurts people instead of doing good.
For all her professed admiration for the fellow, she seems not to have realized that Gandhi’s entire life was basically one of criticism.
Of course, I could be remembering things wrong; I just pieced my shattered brain together again, and I have no wish to break it again by going back to those comments.