Thanks for the detailed response.

I hadn't heard the term “ narcissism of small differences” before, but I'm certainly familiar with examples of it from your explanation. Another one would be far-left groups whose fierce arguments and differences are incomprehensible to outsiders.

I share your reservations about Sender Spike's personality and attitude (I've made that clear to him in the past). But I wouldn't want not to engage with him or block him (I didn't know that was possible!), since he is very knowledgeable, and makes good points. Also, part of the point of writing about the things I do is to get intelligent responses from knowledgeable people like you and him. I make no claims that anything I say is the truth, and am always seeking to learn more.