"That you're just another cunt who's trying to shape the world according to his own little petty likes and dislikes and cancel the opinions of people who offend or confuse or provoke? it probably doesn't"

Chris Hitchens, Niall Ferguson, even William F. Buckley, people like that, have or had opinions that can offend or provoke, etc. That's because they make an effort to back up their opinions with actual facts, historical backgrounding, or at least reasonable facsimiles thereof. A person can then engage and argue with them, on the basis of the arguments they have presented. This is not the case with you, Mick.

You think I'm provoked by your opinions? How could I be? An opinion has meaning behind it, evidence. You do not present arguments for a point of view. You are too impatient for difficult topics, and so you indulge yourself in meaningless, one or two sentence provocations and insults, masking the mean-spiritedness behind them with kitschy, self-glorifying children's book references, insulting the memory of JRR Tolkien in the process. This does less than add nothing to a discussion of reality. It actually damages it, which I suspect is the intent. (By the way, Gandalf had purpose, dignity. Do you?)

You share your 'opinions' in the way a 13-year-old will share their opinion by ringing someone's doorbell and leaving a burning paper bag full of dogshit on the stoop. Fine, that's your right. Just as it is my right to tell you to go fuck yourself. I make no apologies for urging you to find another community to insult, degrade, and denigrate, Mick, and I hope you follow through on your promise to do so.