As previously stated, sometimes things lead to intense agreement or disagreement. Each person has their own style of expressing how they feel about a post. This was found when someone insulted Billy Joel. In this example, the message is clearly directed towards the person who wrote it. I see happening a lot.
Someone writes a message and others attack the person, rather then what they had to say.
This in my opinion, makes their counter argument weaker, because it drifts from the true point. The person may be perfectly sane, but because of what they say, they are deemed crazy or stupid. It is as if the person and their thought are the same thing. The time is not taken to contemplate where the idea came from, and in some cases, it may not be the author's true feelings, but something they heard and are passing on. This same type of thing happens when someone goes against the normal current of the newsgroup.