Fundies and Rationalist Reconcilers: Do they deserve to be bashed or debated?

Apparently my previous post upset some people - it was too "mocking". I didn't intend it that way at all, I thought it was expressing an important point in an amusing way, as is my style. Had I wanted to go on the attack ... well you can only imagine what the post would have looked like! But anyways, I apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings.

The truth is there are very few people who deserve any kind of personal attack. Even people like Rabbi Avi Shafran, who frequently makes my blood boil with his inane articles, might not deserve it. After all, it's his job to defend the Agudah, you can't blame him for trying.

Possibly the only person in the past few years who really, really deserved a good bashing was Tropper. Certainly many of the fundies are in the category of "tinok shenishbah", or maybe "sheayno yodeah lishol". We should certainly attack their specious arguments, but not they themselves.

But what about the "Rationalist Reconcilers" - those people who 5 years ago I spent every waking minute defending, until I realized that they didn't have any (good) answers either? They are sufficiently educated and intelligent to know their own arguments are often lame. Do these people deserve to be bashed? Maybe so, maybe not. However I certainly agree that reasoned debate is better than bashing.

And I would like to debate those people intellectually (and politely), though many of them refuse to debate. I wonder is this is because they think/know they will lose? One thing to Gil's credit, he does engage in some limited debate.

Then again, for many of these figures, the fact that they are in public positions, including Rabbis of shuls or members of the RCA, means that they just can't be honest about their true views, even if they wanted to. And maybe this is why they don't debate, because it would be too frustrating for them as they would have to muzzle their true opinions, and argue for things they themselves don't really believe in.

It's a tangled web we weave.