[Preechr]

I didn't say you had to be a pussy to be intellectually honest. I didn't say you have to avoid confrontations, either. Yes, changing a mind is rare, but it does happen. My point was that it never happens when the methods used in the attempt are intellectually dishonest. As an example: If you and I were arguing about something, and I intentionally respond to things you didn't say because I don't want to debate your actual points, preferring instead to just smear crap all over the place and then declare victory when you finally tire of my BS and quit, THAT's intellectual DIS-honesty. "Debates" such as that decidedly NOT rare, and nothing positive is ever accomplished by them.

I don't post on message boards because I know everything already. I post to be proven wrong, and I read to learn new things. If your contention is that most people are out here typing just to fake some victory dances and bully others around, then I would argue that you aren't factoring in for time again. Sure, everybody has fun being an e-dick for a while, but it gets tiresome and boring. At some point, I believe most people eventually move on to more honest methods of communication, though a lot of them go do it in real life because they think the whole message board world is only for the assholes. People mature.