I have noticed a disturbing trend that this community begins to act irrationally when the subject of Intellectual Property arises. Generally speaking our community handles most disagreements with class, to the extent that we have a relatively large membership that do not identify as AnCap (or Voluntarist) and yet still feel comfortable and welcome here. Unfortunately that courtesy is discarded the instant I.P. is mentioned.

When a person enters a charged emotional state, such as through fear or anger, their capacity to think clearly and rationally or understand more complex concepts is reduced. If you find yourself in that state, I would suggest conquering your emotions before you continue.

Emotionally charged and aggressive language polarizes the other person, they are forced quickly into a yes/no position, whereby the only safe response is a "no." Instead if is far more effective, and respectful, to allow the other person to explore your ideas in an entirely non-committal way, and based on the logic, ethics, evidence, or substance make a far more rational decision.

Effective communication is so important to the voluntarism community, and I would hate to see opportunities thrown away and dissolve into the typical "trading blows" type scenario.

P.S. I recorded two related podcasts earlier today:

• AutoSquared - Non Committal Communication (8m27s)
• AutoSquared - Trading Blows (4m09s)

EDIT: Semi off topic, but I had two mini-victories earlier today. First, [this one] should make you smile. Second, I was able to defeat a marginalization of capitalism with [a very simple, well placed comment], which ended up dominating the entire discussion (top voted comment by a significant margin).