I have opposed Lauda, yes. There are a number of cases in which I've literally countered a rating from Lauda. Other forum members of which I've directly opposed include Vod, OgNasty, TECSHARE, etc... the list goes on.
Same here (though not Vod so much), and although I wish we were all on the same page about everything, we all know that is never going to happen. The conflict is what keeps the forum balanced--if you can believe that--because if all the "powerful" personalities here had the same opinions, bitcointalk would be like an oligarchy or some such thing. There needs to be dissent, and I don't think OP should have to fear getting tagged because he's speaking out against Lauda or anyone else. I think a lot of us agree that this wouldn't be an appropriate use of the trust system, and hopefully a tag like that would be countered.
Newbie accounts that appear to know a lot about the forum and have a grudge against DT usually means they are a sockpuppet of a tagged older account.
Definitely. I'm just hoping OP isn't an alt of cryptohunter/TOAA, because in that case it would be hard for me to take any of this seriously. The writing style and length are similar, but I can't be sure. OP seems a bit more level-headed than CH.