That is a rare quality, is it not?
I think in general people are too thinskinned about arguing in the current climate. There are lines of decorum and propriety that should not be crossed (but if need be the old "fight fire with fire" line can be applied), but there is a pervasive idea in our culture that strident and volitile arguing is an unalloyed evil that nothing good can come from. In part, the larger media is responsible for this feeling, since so little of substance is said without any evidence in an adversarial manner which is mindnumbing instead of edifying.
Maybe it is just because it is election season that I feel this way, but to have a temper of any sort is regarded as a character flaw in larger society and may have very well cost John McCain the Republican nomination back in 2000. But no one is supposed to be angry, pissed or outraged about anything enough to "lose" their cool lest they appear mad and out of sorts. Maybe some things are gained, but we have lost much and forgotten even more by venerating an emotional flatline as the norm.
Speaking for myself, I wrote two very argumentative pieces about something important to me and people wandered on the board to attack and deconstruct what I wrote. This more than anything accounts for the fire and brimstone that has issued from my fingertips on numerous occassions and may give some the wrong overall impression.
Also, as a rule, it is incredibly difficult to say something that has meaning and substance about metal without offending or angering someone somewhere, but sometimes things need to be said.
As for this thread, I have not read Lovecraft and not much Weird fiction so I can't really comment one way or another on the topic which kick started this thread.
