a lot of hostility is created from the need to react to someone's saltiness. there's a big "he started it!" mentality in terms of arguments here, where people just assume it's okay to react to hostility with hostility.
obviously it's okay to call someone out for saying something, it is a forum after all, but don't fan the flames and then complain that there's too many fires.
IE, i often call people "dorks" or "clowns", etc. when i think they're acting foolish, because having a statement where i say "why are you doing _______, you bozo" makes them actually have to respond to my comment. if i say "why are you doing ______, you loving idiot", you've automatically made your argument weaker because anyone can tell you to stop being edgy and calm down.
i remember two years ago, taboo said something i disagreed with, so i messaged him this long diatribe on how "i usually respect him, but this is too far", cus i assumed i'm smart and i'm in the right morally, and i remember he responded with
"lol okay"
and i realized i was creating the problem. i chose to respond in a silly, condescending way, and when he basically shut me down, i realized the way he felt about what he was saying was not the way i thought he felt about what he was saying. we can't all be in the right, we're all in a gray area. realize that you can exacerbate a situation just as easily as you can respond to it reasonably, or even make a joke out of it.
