Oh no doubt. I don't think he ever tried to come across as condescending or antagonistic. But he sure came off as condescending and antagonistic a lot. And a number of us tried to say "Hey, dude - you're kind of coming off as condescending and antagonistic" as politely as we could and it never went well.

So what's the answer? If your choices are caustic burn or detonation, are you better off suffering the burn or triggering periodic detonations? I know this - explosions are more work for a bomb than bile is for a gallbladder.

I'm honestly sorry to see the kid go. But when you can't even say hey, man, did you mean to come across like that? without causing the drams, well, my life is interesting enough, ya kna?

BTW - there's nothing wrong with being 12, 15, 17, 18, 32, 64, hike. But if you can't learn how to communicate with people without pissing them off at 15, it's gonna be way harder at 18... and matter way more at 21. I can't recall ever seeing you get into fisticuffs with anyone over anything. Generally it takes two on this stuff but some people will do more than meet you in the middle.