"The big message here (that will be completely lost on half the posters reading) is that you can't continue to be nice to bullies. Absolutely be nice at first. Discuss in good faith. Make your arguments. But there comes a time when an internet bully - a troll - has to be called out for what he is and dealt with appropriately. At that point, nice is no longer appropriate. Take the gloves off and hit back, hard and often."

Nancy Pelosi has a good comment in her book about how she had met with Trump numerous times and each time she left the meeting she thought that either Trump was a moron or that Trump thought she was a moron.

Basically, he would say things that were so obviously stupid that either he was dumb enough to believe what he said, or he thought she was dumb enough to be fooled by them.

Almost all of Dope's arguments are similar to that. You can say something like "The government shouldn't favor a religion", and he will say "You mean people can't proclaim their religious beliefs in public?". He is either a moron for thinking that is what you are saying, or he is insulting you by thinking you are stupid and he can pull one over on you by misrepresenting the argument.

I try to be gracious by giving Dope the benefit of the doubt that he is just being insulting, but I really start to wonder......