OblivionagesmoboFirst, way to -frag Lange for trying to guide this community toward something almost respectable. Shame on him.
I don't think it's necessarily because no one agrees with his intention but the average guy is going to read what steve had to say and feel some anger towards Elena. Lange is definitely right. But for the average person on this forum, not a lot of people know how Elena is or the background of the conflict so we just go off of the OP.
Also, you saw how Elena made fun of Steve for being asian and 'small' so you can't fucking tell me that we can't insult her back. That's the problem with society. Everyone is a pussy. In real life if someone calls you a chink or something else racist, you're not going to go "Sorry but let's try to be civilized here and talk this through." You're going to sock the motherfucker.
On the topic of your first paragraph, I don't think anyone should base any opinion off of one source. As you said: The average person is basing their opinion off of one person (the OP), instead of going into that IRC themselves and getting a first hand account. Or asking someone they know outside of this forum. When they have just one source, they are looking at only a single facet of the argument. This is mostly generalized information, it applies to most of anything.
On your second paragraph, it might actually be the inverse of that. Personally, if I was Asian or a race which has had derogatory terms or stereotypes attributed to it, I would first try to leave instead of causing more conflict. I do not know where you live, but in most places, it's very hard to get someone to punch you without being physically aggressive towards them ("getting in their face", hitting them first, or something along those lines, but most of the time they will just leave, even when doing that). On the internet this is not the case, there's countless examples of conflicts on the internet, and in nearly every case, both parties are at fault.
Edit: I read this over a few times, and I think I appeared a little aggressive. I would like to say I didn't reply out of disagreement, but out of interest.