Let me begin my response like this:

I don't mind giving merits if a member makes some good points, even if I might not agree with them or even understand exactly what the points might be, and even if later it is shown that they are not adequately backing up what they say.

There likely is some evidence for what UchihaSarada had posted in the above OP, even if in the end, he might not have backed up everything that he said very well.. but there were others in this thread that did some additional backing up the essences of some of the points.., and you (John Abraham) seem to have strong feelings about UchihaSarada failure to adequately back up his framing of history on the topic of whether Lazlo might have had several other times in which he bought pizzas with large quantities of bitcoin.. including possibly 4 times and such as 10k BTC each time. 

Seems a bit much to actually spend 40k btc on 8 pizzas, but it is not totally out of the realm of reasonableness - even if you, JA, label UchihaSarada as disingenuine, fishing for merits and/or purposefully spreading misinformation.. which seems a bit much of a claim, too.. , and I hardly give too many shits if the exactness of the substance of what was asserted by UchihaSarada is true or not, and it does not seem to rise to the level of disingenuineness, even if there seems to have had been sloppiness in some of the research.. but was anyone killed?  except UchihaSarada might have gotten some undeserved merits.. perhaps? perhaps?  I don't even know.. I don't feel like I gave any undeserved merit in that case merely because UchihaSarada might have not done very good research in the opening post. 

The point about "escalating quickly" does seem to relate to what I had seen as a lot of emotionalism in responses that likely does not deserve so much emotionalism.. which seems that both sides have been getting emotional about the motives of the other member on the other side of the "debate"...

Surely members can disagree on matters, and sometimes we end up getting pissed off at each other... and sometimes we make up later... I have some battles with some members who we seem to get along well these days, and surely there are some members who really seem to dislike me too.. so there's only so much that can be done about some of the differences in perspectives, and sometimes members rub each other the wrong way... what can we do?

Sure I also don't have any problems with some exaggerations or even purposeful emotions coming through posts that do not appear to rise to the level of losing one's cool... so if any member seems to really lose their cool and to get overly emotional in their posts (or their responses), then they are likely losing points in any argument that they might be trying to make.. but sometimes the emotions will cause them to not give any shits.. and just want to vent their frustration,  which surely seems a losing approach to any debate, whether on the interwebs or even live attempts at debate.. don't lose your cool, but instead get your opponent to lose his/her cool. .. even though sometimes emotions can win on certain points on the interwebs (but not too frequently.. it's a kind of exception to the rule.. of not losing your cool in regards to random peeps on the interwebs).   

And, hey I don't even claim to be Mr./Ms. detached from emotions, and surely I throw some emotions around once in a while, and sometimes I even have been known to go overboard a wee bit too much in whatever I say, how much I say and even my tone (lack of humbleness, and even arrogance)... including even irritating myself, from time to time.

Many of us should attempt to not lose our emotions on the interwebs, even if we might find some other members to be irritating, but in the end, if you want to lose your emotions, then go ahead.. it's a free country, the last time I checked...

wait.

On your other point about whether to respond, surely sometimes there can be advantages in terms of not responding, especially if you already know that you are devolving into emotional posts.. and surely it is up to you, whether to respond or not.

Frequently, I tend to respond when I feel that I have been directly attacked (or referenced), unless I feel that I had already sufficiently/adequately addressed whatever point is trying to involve me, or I might refrain from responding if it appears better if I don't say anything.. so of course, there is discretion that each of us has in terms of whether we should respond or not.

I believe that most of the times when I choose to respond, I try to not take it personal (or to make my response personal.. even though you never know, I might choose to throw in a few zingers for funzies, from time to time, too.. so there is a kind of balancing and attempt to figure out how important the topic might be to me).  There is a lot of variations in choosing to respond and how to respond.. and frequently it can be difficult to figure out how to leave emotion out or whether it should be left out, which the rule of thumb would be to leave it out and only strategically employ it...and if you strategically employ it wrong, then sucks to be you.

.. members sometimes will end up getting themselves banned, suspended or red tagged by other members because they are unable to stop their battles with other members... or maybe sometimes they just end up forcing themselves into a kind of rage quit.  those are choices.. and surely sometimes not easy to figure out when to stop.