Dangers to the soul

There is an amazing flamewar going on on the English listserv right now. It's now reached the meta stage, where people are flaming about the flamewar, which probably means it won't last much longer, but it is the most unhinged set of emails I've ever seen. It was started off by a reference to a "cult of Leninist vampires," and continued, several volleys later:

>> Do you realize what an ethnocentric term [diatribe] is ... especially considering the fact that you invoke it to firmly separate and distinguish "rational" conversations from so-called "savage" attacks? In the future, why not simply call it dia-tribalism ?

and in response to that:

>> frankly, I can't remember why I thought graduate school was ever a good idea in the first place anymore; what a fucking soul-killing endeavor (I used to be strong, now I'm just very, very tired