It very probably is headed there but I would argue that both of us, as well as an unknown number of observers, have been shaped by the interaction. Maybe only a little, but not none.

I know I've learned a few things from a few exchanges here. I think it's mostly been from the ones that have been open to discussion on both ends, which I think emphasizes the point I was trying to make, even if I didn't succeed at it.

But the other side of that is one of the others I've exchanged with today, who was more drawn in by the type of rhetoric that drives me away.

I think the lurking audience isn't to be discounted though. I've been among them before myself, but there's never a way to know their size or if they're even looking. Even so we can be influencing them in unexpected ways.

Either way I think I'm ending this a bit better than I started it. I hope I'm not the only one who feels that way.

No worries about the oversight. We're all prone to mistakes.