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Or maybe, and just maybe, the whole ‘stages of grief’ concept is not actually predictive of which opinion is actually right, and it’s just a cheap rhetorical trick providing an excuse to patronizingly dismiss someone else’s scepticism towards an idea.

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Exactly. Kubler-Ross, the author of the original "stages of grief" paper, has since tried to clarify her horribly misunderstood idea: the "stages" are neither essential nor sequential, but are merely some of the many ways in which people react to grief.

I doubt the commentor was 100% serious when applying the "stages of grief" to blogposts.

True, but whether or not something is a joke and whether or not it is rhetorically misleading are orthogonal characteristics.

I don't think it's misleading. I read the OP comment as a humorous warning that we should be cautious around arguments which very probably came out of wish to defend beloved PL. These opinions often bring interesting thoughts, but more often then not they are built as "I need to proof X, therefore I select facts for it"

Thank you. The Gamma radiation was starting to glow.

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