…someone that does not like what you said, starts writing conjectures and extrapolating from those conjectures…

Internet forums are not an efficient medium for debating politics and religion, because it is not really natural.

In the first place, one does not have clue whom they are conversing with, they do not see them, do not know what they look like or how they live. In the real world, who in their right mind would ever walk up to a complete stranger and start a debate on politics and religion with them? Moreover, do it with a stranger that looks dangerous or looks like they have nothing in common with them? It really is somewhat insane. Sure, on CI one figures they are talking with someone like them, a so-called trad Catholic, but what about the rest "one does not have clue whom they are conversing with, they do not see them, do not know what they look like, or how they live"?

For another, in real life it would not take weeks to get something across to someone because you are right in front of them seeing them and talking to them. On the internet, just when you think you've made your point to everyone reading it and the people understand, and you leave for a week and the instant you leave, someone that does not like what you said, starts writing conjectures and extrapolating from those conjectures, and when you come back it is as if you wrote nothing, everything you wrote is hidden pages in the past as if you never wrote it.

Maybe it is just me because I was a jock in school and this is a geek thing, but in real life no man in his right mind would say the things men regularly say here to other men as if it were nothing. Insults that had they used them in real life upon first setting their feet out in the neighborhood at like the age of 5, would have received a beating. Men learn early on that one does not talk like that to other men, or they will end up in a fight. The internet geeks, I guess because they are anonymous and nobody can come after them, become despots, insulting everyone like no man in their right mind would do in the real world. They become like the Wizard of Oz,  a despot on the screen. 

For another, it is not natural for a man to have to put up with abuse like that, especially a man that does not put up with it from anyone no matter the title or the size. I think that women can do better, since they are more accustomed to "holding it in", but it still is not natural even for them.

In the movie The Quiet Man, in one of the Irish bar scenes, John Wayne said that one does not discuss women in bars, and two other subjects (I do not remember if it was in that movie or not) were politics and religion. The three subjects were not discussed because they tended to end in fisticuffs, which is natural for men. Well, what is discussed here on CI? Religion and politics, but we have an unnatural environment where even a little coward of a man can say anything and feel safe. Not a good situation.

For all of the above reasons, I think it is not for me. So, with that I will go back to my Lent absence from CI and ponder on all of this.

Well, unfortunately, it's what we have.  Most of us don't have Traditional Catholics who live within 30 miles of us, and most of those who show up at our chapels you can't really have an intelligent conversation with (at least at mine).

Well put, Mithrandylan.  A poor analogy but one nonetheless:  there are some brilliant mechanics out there that can pinpoint all kinds of issues by looking at the car and talking to the owner for 10 minutes.  But if you asked them to explain their method in writing or give a lecture, they'd struggle.  Writing or lecturing isn't the problem; it's just that there are different types of intelligence in different types of people.  Some learn by study, others by experience, others by both.  Some are good at explaining/teaching to the general public (formally, based on principles); some are better at explaining/teaching things to a specific person (informal, interpersonal).  Everyone has limits.