You put together a long, thoughtful reply to the post which indulged very little in emotional language. I note it is the only comment that got a long, thoughtful reply from blackbootz. I am sorry to see that your conversation did not continue. I won't speculate on the mental state of others, but my frustration with these conversations is entirely due to the lack of calm, clearly-expressed disagreement.Personally, I think it's extremely difficult to talk about politics without getting somewhat emotional.
Do you expect an essay in Chicago-style format? I suspect maybe you agree with Caplan's points and are more upset most people in this thread are disagreeing.
I can speak only for myself, but my lack of "calm, clearly-expressed disagreement" is due to the fact that the arguments put forth - often the arguments you put forth yourself - are deliberately disingenuous and manipulative. You seldom argue a point, you generally argue around a point. If someone argues that sunflower seeds are predominantly black, you will argue that the petals of the sunflower are widely acknowledged to be yellow therefore one cannot assert with any certainty that the seeds are black (latin phrase with link). I know you're smarter than this, and I know you're better at argumentation, but it's the easy thing, it's the accepted thing, it's the standard tactic of the conservative propagandist without facts on his side. More than that, you're more likely to range far afield the less intelligent you've judged your opponent to be. Again, speaking only for myself, I'm not going to calmly walk through whether or not sunflower petals are yellow when the only reason we're talking about them is that you refuse to discuss sunflower seeds. Especially when your go-to trope is "nobody else is willing to discuss my off-topic nonsense calmly and rationally."