I do indeed play the devil's advocate and that's because I don't think a lot of people who present ideas believe they're presenting an argument. A lot of people will meander through life believing everyone (or at least everyone who matters) will hold the same position as them. If you're prepared to put an argument out into the world then you must be prepared to defend it - and if you aren't prepared to defend it, then you must question the validity of it.

Tim is great because he does come out and defend his position on a lot of things - and I have a lot of time for that. Many people don't. When it comes to the 'asking questions' argument, your point is well made - but it comes with a pre-judgment. It comes with the apriori assumption the matter is settled and all future questions are foolish. There will be foolish questions of course, and there will be time wasting idiots. I'm even prepared to concede I might be one of them - however, the harder you make it to question the status quo, the more you force pluralistic ignorance upon the demos, the greater the rise of 'everyone knows' - and groupthink like that is dangerous.

By all means rebuff douchebaggery but we must be careful not to do that by shutting down the right to question. And....if nobody has said it before now then welcome to the cut and thrust of Medium! Continue to hold me accountable whenever you think I need to be reigned in. :o)