If someone locks this thread, I'm gonna end up banned from these forums..... WHO'S COMIN WITH ME?!
Anyway - the predilection for the average person to get offended in an argument, speaks to the overall general immaturity of the human race. The fact that people invest so much emotion into things barely understood, or improperly digested, is a somewhat childish act.
When someone is intellectually evolved enough to properly see the separation between themselves, and the thoughts that drift through their heads - then they can debate honestly and fairly. Part of it is based on a simple assumption - that by the time you hear or read my words -
I am no longer the same person who spoke or wrote them. Granted, I may not have changed much, but that is irrelevant, as my actual being is not defined by those impulses that your brain is receiving.
It is the lack of understanding of this basic fact, that makes people get so bent out of shape about "flip-flopping". They'll criticize a politician (for example, they just get more intense long-term scrutiny than other people) for endorsing a position that is opposite of something that they said, or did, or voted for 10 or more years ago. I'm sorry, but really that goes back to the failing of Democracy at large - people who are unable to comprehend that someone might actually grow as a person, and change their mind on an issue in the span of an entire decade, then they really shouldn't have the same influence on the "big picture" that more rational people have.
Everyone should have a voice, but until we resolve the issues of widespread ignorance and incompetence, we're not just suffering from the "blind leading the blind", we're stuck with the "blind leading the 20/20" - and that's not a positive situation for anyone.