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What is a USENET discussion? This is a USENET discussion.

Person A says Something.
Person B refutes it. Some of the time, B misinterprets A first (these
        are the fun ones).
A calls person B a twit.
Person C jumps in and argues with both A and B.
A and B form a temporary alliance to pound C into slime.
D, E and F all jump in.  D argues that A has a perfect right to say
        Something, E says that as far as libertarians go, it's fine by him,
        and F says that since he's a Pagan, not allowing him to say what he
        wants is religious discrimination.
A Publicly wonders what libertarian Paganism has to do with Something.
G, H and I comment.  G points out that libertarians are nothing but
        godless American bashers.  H claims that F is going to hell for
        being a Pagan.  I claims that EVERYONE (except him) is going to
        hell for being on the same net as F without putting him to the
        question and then burning him.
J points out that the argument about Someting has now used up three times
        the resources that Something originally did.
A, D, E and H all tell J to shut up.  I tells J he's going to hell.
A publicly wonders what in the heck is going on.  All he said was
        Something.
I tells A he's going to hell.
C tells I to chill out.
D points out that in a libertarian country, I has the right to tell people
        they're going to hell.
I tells D he's going to hell.
D tells I he's a bleeding Marxist and he's done supporting idiots.
M, N and Q suggest that everyone take a deep breath.
I tells them they're going to hell.
U chimes in and tells people about an argument about Nothing over in foo.blah.
A says Something. The silence is deafening.

And that's how discussions are held on USENET.