Your last sentence ruined it, seriously.
Just to be clear, I did not really mean this:
"If you can't see the benefits of civil debate, you are an idiot."
It was intended to have a tone completely different from the rest of the comment. And so, despite the rest of the comment being sound, this one sentence caused a rift.
So, I did not add it to insult. I added it to make a point, and you highlighted that point so much better than you realized.
That being said, if you can't handle being called an idiot on the internet, you unfortunately probably are an idiot (on the internet).