"That wasn't a character assassination." It quite literally was (ie it's literally dictionary definition character assassination), and if you don't understand

"That wasn't a character assassination." It quite literally was (ie it's literally dictionary definition character assassination), and if you don't understand that, i'm not sure what to tell you "However, it's a very convenient cop-out for you to duck out of the discussion. " So, just to get this straight, your way of having a "discussion" is: 1. slag on someone's character and background for no reason. 2. drag irrelevant stuff into the mix. 3. Cast aspersions on their motivations for refusing to participate as a result. Yes, if that's how you have "discussions", please, feel free to keep me the hell out of them. I've participated in plenty contentious discussions on HN with actually civil people.