Do you ever simply "give up" on a thread?

On occasion a good comment stream will begin, and I jump right in. But more often than not, by the time I have to put up with all the political parroting, the massive equivocating, superstition, sophomoric pontificating, and schoolmarm grammar and spelling corrections, I start to get tired of the effort.
Of course, and not surprisingly I suppose, I have occasionally gotten on a soapbox myself, so I totally understand the impulse.
But have you ever simply gotten tired of all the bullshit and dropped out of a thread or even stopped following one of your own questions because it all got to be too much?
I know that I have.
I ask this because as someone who is sort of a Fluther outsider, and still new to the game, I wonder if I am missing an important point.
Is there a sort Fluther ethos that demands that you hang on to the bitter end?