Sunday, September 28, 2008

Civility and this Blog

I have been a bit inconsistent in the way I deal with civility in this blog, and I want it to stop. In an comment this morning on one of CAPT Midnight's comments to the Obama and Racism post below, I chided him for insulting me and my readers. In several other posts this morning, CAPT Midnight made comments I considered insulting, and I had decided to ignore his posts...except that he made what I thought was a quality post worthy of responding to.

This got me thinking that there have been plenty of instances recently where I have not responded when folks have said things here that were uncivil or insulting, probably because the targets were generally folks whose views I do not hold.

That needs to stop. I will be much more careful about policing the rhetoric here, making liberal use of the trash button if the rhetoric deviates from discussions of policy/opinion. Insults, whether aimed at individuals or at groups of individuals, will not be tolerated, no matter the target.

For example, I consider charges that Barack Obama is somehow aligned with Osama bin Laden or any other Islamic terrorist, to be insulting and uncivil. I do not consider questions about his acknowledged relationship with an acknowledged terrorist (Bill Ayers) to be insulting or uncivil. I consider my raising the question of the impropriety of the use of the word "homophobic" to describe the distaste I feel for the ACTS that distinguish homosexuality legitimate. I consider broad insults designed to undercut the humanity of people who ARE homosexual to be insulting and uncivil. I consider MSNBC to be blatantly left of center; I do not think people who watch MSNBC are any less intelligent than those who watch Fox or CNN.

Ok, so let's try and all stay on the up and up here.

1 comment:

  1. Good thing Winston Churchill is too deceased to participate under these rules. Civility is generally a preferred way to engage in meaningful discourse, and you've laid out your guidelines clearly. Knowing you, I believe you'll enforce them in such a way that you preserve civility without hobbling vigorous, passionate debate. I for one will try to adhere to your admonition in future posts...even if I'm writing about people from New Jersey. Perhaps especially then.

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