It's non-constructive and dickish. Thing is, flag and I have a long history, get each other, and have had many spirited discussions founded on mutual respect. He's earned my forbearance. So am I going to mute him? No. We have community. You also seem to think that I have some sort of obligation to the universe to permit (even encourage!) people who refuse to have an honest discussion with me to continue to have dishonest discussions with others in posts I made. Why on earth should I put up with that? There's nothing whatsoever preventing CashewGuy from saying "hey, man - I got a little hot under the collar. Let me try again because I actually want to have this discussion." But he's not. He's saying "I did nothing wrong, and an apology is an admission of guilt." He won't even have a discussion about that. So what is he adding to a discussion about reaching out/apologizing? And why am I not absolutely, positively, 100% entitled to be the arbiter of that decision?