Neville, don’t put words in my mouth. I did not say the approach of Chabad Chassidus is not unique. I said the things you find offensive about Lubavitchers are well rooted in Chassidus in general. By saying “you can’t bring lomdus to a metzius fight” I don’t understand what you mean. Your example of the Koran, lehavdil is misplaced because it shows that the text says A and the people do B. I am saying the text says A and people are doing A. As far as credentialing yourself by saying you learned Sfas Emes or Yismach Moshe you also missed the point. I don’t care what it does or doesn’t say in those sefarim. There are earlier texts that greatly emphasis the importance and role of tzaddikim to the extent that saying their existence and the relationship with them is crucial and fundamental and those texts are based on earlier kabbalistic texts etc etc etc. What the Sfas Emes of the Yismach Moshe mention or don’t mention is irrelevant to me. Look at Torah’s of the first three generations of chassidus. But for reference, The Yismach Moshe was a talmid of the Chozeh. The school of the Chozeh was incredibly Rebbe-centric and into what is referenced academically as Popular Hasidism, in that Chassidus revolves around the relationship of Chossid and Rebbe in a cultural or social sense. The Sfas Emes is a branch in the Peshischa school of thought were that relationship was extremely demphasized and the relationship stressed was that The Rebbe is a spiritual guide but a person has to work on himself. Breslov is incredibly Rebbe centric so clearly you didn’t learn too much. As to your line that you know Chassidim, what can I tell you? It isn’t my fault if there are people who call themselves Chassidim but don’t learn Chassidus and to them Hasidism means three types of kugel, a fur hat, shiny jacket, and sometimes you go to the tish. What you are referencing is cultural Hasidism.
What do you think the Toldos Yaakov Yosef and other foundational texts were burned for? Don’t talk about things about which you don’t know.