> When in your second post in this thread you asked rhetorically
> whether street crime was worse than corporate crime (and I
> admit I'm stuffing way too much into those two summary terms),
> it struck me at first as an instance of an argument that
> seldom gets anywhere.
I don't ask rhetorical questions to win arguments; I ask them to make sure that the scope of the thread is wide enough, to bring in other elements that I believe deserve consideration. They are rhetorical specifically because they don't have a "right" answer, no point to win in an argument.
Anyway, getting away from the meta, I agree with the OP: letting a small number of loudmouths shape the debate is bad for your side, no matter which side you're on :-)
/jordan