Comments are welcome on this site even if the commenter disagrees with the author; no, disagreement is even more welcome than fawning praise because it may well be more interesting and thought-provoking.  But there are standards.  Comments should add to civil and thoughtful discussion of issues.  This site is not a chat room.

Everyone has a right to speak, but no one has a right to be heard.  There is no democracy here; the author is the sole moderator, and there is no court of appeals.  A commenter who breaks a rule may get a second chance, at the discretion of the author, but the comment will be edited to make it acceptable.  A commenter who breaks the rules again, or who commits a mortal infraction under “Forbidden” below, will lose commenting privileges and be cast beyond the pale.  Comments are limited approximately to 350 words.

Welcomed—

• Cogent and coherent arguments that conform to basic rules of logic and reasoning.
• Comments must be on-topic responses to posts or other comments.
• Comments must add to the discussion, not just regurgitate what others have said.
• Comments must be in English only.

Unacceptable—

• Sophistry, i.e. arguments that sound superficially plausible but, on closer examination, prove to be fallacious or misleading.
• Bigotry, real bigotry, i.e. obtuse, ignorant, mindless intolerance.  Well-reasoned intolerance may actually be included in the Welcomed category.
• Vacuous or gratuitous invective or incendiary language.  Strong words are Welcomed if they are part of and/or necessary to a well-reasoned argument.
• Group talking points, any group’s talking points, that are simply regurgitated from a list.
• Excessive use of all-caps words.
• Texting-style English or text with no caps or punctuation.  A reasonable attempt to write grammatically correct English is required.
• Merchandising: This site has no capability for selling anything and will not, as a matter of principle, take on any advertising.

Forbidden—

• Profanity.
• Advocating or provocatively predicting violence against persons or government authorities.
• Advocating illegal activity, e.g. thievery, refusing to pay taxes, driving without a license, etc.
• Slander or ad hominem attacks.