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by forward1 896 days ago
> legitimate desire for truth or someone just looking to poke holes in the post

What is the difference?

2 comments

Good versus bad faith.

The person looking for truth will likely go "thanks!" when receiving the clarification or additional info they were searching for.

The person looking to poke holes will move onto the next trumped-up quibble and force someone to knock that down too. Repeat ad infinitum until people get fed up and you can claim victory. (for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968969)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop

As the (ironically, probably not) Churchill quote goes: "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

Anger.
You're right. We must be civilized and restrained from emotion. All anger is to be reserved for "Hate Week".