... which is that you and Baldur succeeded in convincing me you are both jerks by constantly acting like one to me in between my hiatuses over the past year. The Trucker format thing may be the most important thing to you, but not to me.

And I insist that 2 threads over 15 months is not a significant sample.

The first time was shortly following my return from one hiatus, and it was more than enough from both of you.

The second time, the most recent one, almost immediately followed another hiatus of mine, just like the one before, and I can't help but sense a pattern here maintained over the past year. And the things you both said during that time, including all the insults, misrepresentations of my views, and pointless badgering went way too far, especially since you both knew how that type of thing turns out whenever it goes on for prolonged periods (though even Baldur didn't take it as far as you did last time). Worse, you insisted on going tooth and nail with me non-stop, when we were needed at the time to show unity during one of the usual debates with Ethan. Yet wasting time and intellectual resources on that pointless off-topic fight that was antagonizing a friend appeared far more important to you, and that sent a very clear message to me.

If you want to keep throwing that disagreement in my face and putting so much importance on fighting me over it despite knowing it will do absolutely zero to convince me to change my views, that no one else on the board will really care, knowing the usual invective that you will invariably start hurling at me, and then crying foul when I finally lose my temper due to your constant pushing... then I will not consider you a friend. I have more friends than not who have beliefs much more in line with yours and Baldur's than my own, and they remain so by not constantly antagonizing me about these differences, since as friends they dislike putting us both in a position where they know we will likely end up really pissed at each other and where the temptation to throw insults will get too tempting to resist. Instead, we mutually do our best to focus on what we do have in common, what we can stay unified on, and what we actually like about each other... not the things we have passionate, irreconcilable disagreements on. You know, as friends typically do?

It's a simple skill you and Baldur used to have too, and one you should consider re-learning if you actually want to have friends that have passionate disagreements with you about certain things.