Andy,
Good parenting guides/child psychologists recommend that, when
disciplining
a child you never say "you are being naughty", you say "your behavior
is
naughty", the concept being to concentrate on the behavior, not the
child.
In this instance with Jim I think you are saying Jim is being naughty
when
you shouldn't be.

Hi there - no, I'm saying Jim seems to be oblivious to the actual
effects on people of saying "what you say can't be taken seriously"

As adults can't we concentrate on the supporting information or lack of

supporting information provided rather then the person providing the
information. I think we should have the ability to differentiate
between a
comment made about something the person has said and a comment about
the
person otherwise we get into situations where comments are taken too
personally and we can very readily, but incorrectly take offence. It's
something that seems to happen all too often on these newsgroups.

Yes absolutely - in an ideal world all the above should be possible. My
point is that it tends not to happen in practice, and that's human
nature. It doesn't just happen all too often on these newsgroups, it
happens all too often in real life so if we're being realistic we have
to factor it in. I previously said that ignoring this was naive, but
maybe I should say misinformed instead. You can't argue in a vacuum,
you argue with people and all their attendant emotions.