Avram,
1.”Questioning the intelligence or honesty of the audience, however, is counterproductive.”
Chas v’shalom, I have the highest respect for DY’s intelligence and honesty. That was my point. I really do think that if he reads my posts carefully, he will see that I did not write the things he is accusing me of writing.
2. “If someone who I believe is highly intelligent misunderstands something I wrote and also states that he read it carefully..”
He hadn’t said that at the point that the comment being referred to had been made (about “overstepping boundaries”). He also didn’t say that later on, as you would see if you read his posts carefully. He said that he had read them, not that he had read them carefully. But at the point in question, he hadn’t even said that he had read them. (post 1389862, which is the post that I was defending).
3. It is not an accusation of dishonesty to say that someone did not read what I wrote carefully as seen by their response. It happens very frequently (especially in the CR) that someone posts something that shows that they haven’t read all the posts in the thread carefully. I’m sure that I have done it myself, and I’m sure that you have as well.
4. You seem to be missing the context of the statements that you are attacking. DY had said this: ” I think you are overstepping your boundaries by giving halachic advice where you think you are able to assess a poster’s emotional state. And yes, it’s halachic advice, because the cholov stam issue is not nearly as simple as you make it out to be.”
In that statement, he falsely accused me of saying something that I hadn’t said, and in so doing “overstepping my boundaries.” I thought that his falsely accusing me in this way was “overstepping his boundaries”. I was very offended by that comment, and I do not see anything wrong with telling someone who offends you by falsely accusing you of “overstepping your boundaries” that he is “overstepping his boundaries” by doing so. In fact, I think that was a very polite way to respond to a very offensive comment.
The posts you are attacking were my defending my right to do so, after I was attacked for doing so.