Yeah, I'm sympathetic to this. Thoughtful conversation should, I think, include the assumption that the people you're debating with are intelligent and well-meaning. If I ever think that's not true I just stop bothering to argue. Life's too short. There are times when I'm overcome by frustration, when it seems nobody understands what I'm trying to say. When that happens, I leave the conversation until I get over it. (Which might be a long time.) All this is just corollary to, "if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing." The way I interpret that, disagreement is ok, but snappishness is not. It requires a certain discipline, a willingness to forget past conversations and start afresh. Otherwise you can get caught in a bad dynamic that's not useful to anyone. (Some married couples I know have that problem.) Or you end up taking out past frustrations on unlucky bystanders. Thoughts, kleinbl00? Can't we all just get along? :) If you think a conversation is pointless, why spend the energy to bother saying so?