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When is an Opinion a Rant?

My post on the Paris Accord has generated some interesting responses. Among them are these-

-Your analysis holds little water, actually it qualifies as a rant. I hope I do not have to read a other one.
-Opinions are worthwhile when they are informed. Yours is not informed. It is a rant. Sorry if that bothers you, as evidenced by your ranting response, but that is reality.
-Why don't we admit what is really going on here? Once again Trump is shitting the bed for the sake of shitting the bed. Odds are - and I am being quite serious here - he knows little of the Paris agreement.
- If you honestly think that Trump intends to do better then I am done discussing this matter.
- It's Baby Monster Trump currying favor with the people he admires, and wishes would admire him in return. He is 100% unqualified to be in this job, and those who support him lack basic judgement.

As I have noted before, I publish any comments that are not obscene or profane, and these are not. It does raise a question for me, however, which is what constitutes a 'rant'?

The dictionary definition is 'to speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way'. By this definition I submit only a couple of my blog posts have been rants. At least one, "My Feelings', most certainly was, and I identified it as pure emotion rather than an attempt at data analysis. I don't think my Paris Accords post is a rant. I didn't call anyone a name, used no loaded adjectives, made no absolutist statements other than to say I think the Accord has no meaning.

My replies are....interesting. They moved from telling me I am uninformed, to telling me I'm ranting, then to condemning Trump, and finally to simply closing off discussion if I (and others) do not agree with the responder.

As a matter of formal debate, all these responses are emotive, illogical non-sequiturs. They are ad hominem attacks (mostly on Trump) rather than addressing the issue of whether being in the Paris Accord is worthwhile. They seem rather more like rants to me than my blog post, but I suppose that is a matter of opinion.

In these ugly days, anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot, ranting, a misogynist/liberal commie/sexist/Russian stooge/fucktard/moron/ignorant/etc/etc/etc/. Such labeling does not further understanding. It does not make policy, either for your argument or against it. It's just ugly, empty rhetoric. It is playground level name-calling. It would be funny if it were not practiced by both sides of the political debate. Each side thinks its attacks and labels are justified, and both are wrong, and while they are busy attacking each other nothing of substance gets done.

I wish people would engage in constructive discussion that leads to, if not consensus, then at least understanding even with disagreement. I wish there was personal respect that underlay policy differences. A long-time medical school friend and I have many differences of opinion, but discuss them with respect, and often with compromise. Lots of my friends do the same, Why can't we do that with our opponents? They are not enemies, and politics is not a zero-sum blood sport.

I think the entertaining replies I received qualify as rants, not my blog posts. I have published the comments, and you can decide for yourself.

Ted- uninformed, benighted heathen monster..... :)

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