Unfortunately, people don't always pay attention in many situations, not just here. The average reader's comprehension is about 40-60% of the full depth of meaning and information. Imagine what a professional writer has to put up with. For instance, in Flaubert's preface to Madame Bovary, he raves for twenty pages about how the critics have misunderstood his characters by not reading attentively. Lo & behold, when I read the book, I realised his characters were clearly and obviously exactly as he intended - so how did the many recognised critics of the time get it so wrong?
I think you nailed it Hartfire. I think people see what they want/expect to see and so what is really there is never on their radar. I can't tell you how many times I have asked questions that were apolitical/nonpolitical and the respondent answered with a very partisanly political reply. I used to ask WHY but I know why. They are too dam* LAZY to read what is there before them. They rely on prior baggage they carry with them everywhere. Sure I ask a lot of political question but I also ask a lot of questions that aren't. It doesn't matter what I ask they respond to what they priorly have decided about me. I don't know if I'm more annoyed or disappointed. SIGH. I had even one person tell me that he scoured and scoured and scoured a question looking for the hidden political implication and couldn't find it! Can you believe that? Geez louise puhleez! So what keeps me going are folks like you who do read/comprehend/respond to what is there before them. Thank you for your thoughtful reply and Happy Sunday! :)
Benedict Arnold 