Killing Them With Kindness

As many of you might know, I have several "mirror blogs" on different blog hosting sites. Several days ago, I posted what I thought was a fairly low-key post about personality type and political orientation. It didn't get a lot of response here or on my other blogs, but last night my Blog City version of this post got a scathing comment from a far right neocon, whom I presume can't be much older than 22 or so, based on this maturity level.

I responded, but not in the way he wanted me to. Rather, I followed my father's old strategy of "killing him with kindness". What follows below is his comment, then my response. You might wish to re-read the original post, so you can see precisely how much his comment was out of context

Anthony said:

You liberals disgust me. Liberals are driven by Satan and lie constantly. I'm a conservative right-wing Republican, yet I do not see in any way that reflected in my MBTI "personality type" Apparently I'm a INTJ. But I am a Physics and Electrical Engineering Double Major.

See, you jackasses to me make no sense.... on any issue. Name one issue you liberals are fanatical about. Abortion? The holiest sacrament of liberalism? You're going to tell me it's a constitutional right for a mother to plunge a fork into a baby's brain? Liberals are more upset when a tree is chopped down than when a child is aborted. Even if one rates an unborn child less than a full-blown person, doesn't the unborn child rate slightly higher than vegetation?

My response:

Anthony, your comment proves my point. Thanks for being so helpful.

It is possible to disagree with people without resorting to ad hominem attacks -- getting all worked up like you did in your comment is rarely productive -- it doesn't convince anyone to convert to your opinion.

You'd do much better persuading people to adopt your opinion if you remained objective, factual, leaving the drama and emotion out of it.

Thought a liberal, the traditional conservative does not "disgust" me. Rather, I see them as a person who cares about issues like I do, but has drawn a different conclusion than I have. I may think they're wrong and/or misguided, but I have no need to demonize that person in order to convince myself that my opinion has merit. It's not necessary.

Man, you don't know me, so your level of hostility is uncalled for. I'm not going to debate you on ANY issue, because your comment has shown you don't care a thing about civilized debate. You need to chill out and lighten up a bit. It will do your blood pressure a world of good and you'll live longer,

Good luck on managing the anger problem.

If this person is typical of young Republicans, then they're in deep, deep trouble. I also seriously doubt he's an INTJ by the level of emotion generated in his post toward someone he doesn't even know and who never once mentioned abortion in the post commented on.

Thoughts?