Hello Concart,
You are certainly exercising your freedom to post as you please, respond to whomever you please. We all set our own criteria for deciding who we respond to and how. We must. It is simply impossible to address every single comment. There's too much.
I don't back away from difficult conversations because I disagree with someone. My standard is civility. I am here to talk about politics, and I fully expect to encounter very disagreeable positions. I have zero interest in insult contests.
I don't spend 24-7 here, and I don't want to. I have a life. I come here when I want to sit down for a while and take a break. No way I want to get into the personal garbage, so I set my standards high, and filter out all of that. I want to be challenged. I want to counter respectful and well articulated opposing views with what seems logical to me.
I have a very large Ignore List. Everybody who mouthed off at me is on it permanently. I make my standards very clear up front, and I make examples out of violators when they go off on me. And then I never talk about them again. I actually wish them well. I see no useful purpose in harboring hatred, holding grudges, or seeking revenge. None of those things serve any good purpose.
I also have a very large friend's list. I appreciate that tacit support for my style of posting. I set high standards, and I try to live up to them. Then I can rest easy, leave it all be when I am not here, knowing I have given it my best.
My philosophy is to post in such a way that if everyone were to post that same way we would have the finest discussion board to be found.