I suppose one's view of the discourse may depend largely on who's ox is being gored. There are two problems with give and take on a forum like this.
1. It is easy to say things anonymously that you might never say in a face to face conversation, and some people affect a confrontational style they would never display in real life.
2. It is easy to misunderstand or be misunderstood. I try to look at any post I make carefully to see if it conveys the message I am hoping to make. Even at that, things are often interpreted in ways that I never intended. The other problem is that often I try to be as brief and concise as possible and end up leaving out important context.
I have had confrontations on occasion on political forums, and they are never really satifying, where in person things can generally be worked out congenially.