WilliamH
Elio Addict
Metacognition. Big word to swallow though I do remember Sir Francis Bacon wrote a little treatise titled "Idols of the Mind" explaining your term quite well some 360 years ago. Seems some have even credited him as the Father of Science for his defining writings of the subject.
My guess is that the term "What the hell" has proven to have adversely affected your thread in unintended ways, perhaps?
Some phrases act as triggers to spark subliminal and primal responses affecting some more than others. Advertisers try to use this in Commercials too.
Case in point. I've sometimes wondered if some commercials are selling sex rather than the beer or auto subject. Three guesses as to who was affected most adversely . LOL
On the contrary. If you take a look at #3, #7, and #9 you will see that the thread was intentionally derailed.
After that the instigator kept poking us at every opportunity.
And I will admit his pseudo litigation garbage tweaked me more.
And unfortunately I lost it at #18 (as the result of a 3-1/2 year stretch of being principal defendant in a lawsuit.)