Dealing with posters such as him has led me to a conclusion that such effort is wasted. They will not think about it or consider it, they have decided for whatever reason that their stance is -the- stance and anyone else is wrong. And if they can't -create- a thread, they find an existing one with a potentially volatile topic and immediately start trying to derail it.

Personally, after more than a few new threads with that tone, I'd just have banned the user for a couple days, deleted the last thread and been done with it with a perm-ban for a repeat. This forum may have been nicer in years past, but its moderating policies, indeed the lighter approach you seem to want, don't fit the sudden increase in numbers.