[Written in 2008 Paul Graham](http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html) writes eloquently about levels of disagreeing. It would be great to say that we all rose to his highest level of disagreement, where we dig into the central argument and refute it. Unfortunately most online disagreement, almost all of it in fact, hits the lowest denominator.

Name calling.

Of course the lowest few levels are easy. The upper two levels are hard, and who wants to do work? It’s so much easier to name call and then sit back in smug satisfaction at how smart you are.