DarkFather said:
I think Axia likes the challenge of trying to win the opposing side over. Strangely enough, the most effective method of doing that is going to be completely unrelated to whatever issues he's trying to convince the opposing side of. A large portion of it is going to come down to who he keeps as his social proof.
Interesting points. Another thing I have considered is that perhaps more than liking the challenge of winning over the opposite side, perhaps Axia is just simple used to being the odd man out, and in the minority, and finds himself most comfortable in that position.
I experienced this in my own life, as I spent much of my teen years living overseas. I eventually adapted to the culture and fit in rather well, but I still stood out, I had a horrendous accent and the other kids would laugh at me sometimes for "butchering" their language. After moving back to the US during my college years, I found that my peers thought I was extra cool because I spoke with a goofy accent, I didn't quite dress the way they did, and I was clueless of the last five years of pop culture (kind of funny, for a time here in America, fitting in and being cool was all about being weirder than everyone else). Suddenly, I was kind of popular, and felt very uncomfortable with it. So I worked hard to alienate myself and shake the positive attention for negative attention. I did this by befriending and hanging out with the awkward students everyone else ignored. By doing this I managed to get away from the, "You've got to meet this guy, he is really cool." to "Look at those freaks over there!" which I was far more comfortable with.
Perhaps Axia feels the same way, which is why he sticks around even though he adamantly disagrees with us on just about everything, because he feels more comfortable being in the out-crowd rather than the in-crowd, which is what he might be at TF.n or other sites. Or maybe I am just really stretching on all of this, and he really just likes a challenge. :)
At any rate, I am glad to have him around. Places like this get WAY to bland when everyone agrees on everything. Hope we are not wigging him out by analyzing his behavior like this.