In Praise of Civility...

**PoliticalChic** · #1 (**permalink**) 07-29-2010, 10:42 AM

Madeline wrote this: "We dun have to see eye to eye. Just disagree with some respect."

Love that attitude.

I'd like to rep her for it.

Madeline · #2 (**permalink**) 07-29-2010, 10:46 AM

Back atcha, miss. No need to attack one another as people just because we dun agree on an issue.

**PoliticalChic** · #3 (**permalink**) 07-29-2010, 10:51 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Madeline

Back atcha, miss. No need to attack one another as people just because we dun agree on an issue.

And, this from Mercatornet...

"Name-calling is akin to hitting your opponent over the head with a club, an approach to issues that should have been left with the cave dwellers. Rational, fact-filled argumentation is one of civilization's greatest achievements. And it is in very short supply, especially as the Culture War heats up in a period dominated on the national level by the Democratic Party. The snippets of angry confrontation featured on television talk shows rarely spread either knowledge or understanding. PBS, the Fox News Network, and C-Span have their bipartisan moments. But a shouting match between, say, Eleanor Clift and Sean Hannity is more the norm. On many radio and television outlets, especially the major newspapers, ideological monologue is the norm. And that inevitably means name-calling.

The constant recourse to obscenity, especially blasphemy and "potty words," is on the same level. Rock stars, stand-up comedians, and movie and television shows have spread this tawdry practice throughout our culture. Many young people, aping the standards of the media, think it's "cool" to employ the "f" word in every other sentence, and think it hopelessly "outdated" to write or speak a coherent, grammatically correct sentence. The most common exclamations in films today are "Oh, my God" and "Jesus Christ!" What's wrong here, aside from the offensive treatment heaped upon believing Christians and Jews, is again the substitution of banalities for thought.

A democracy requires its citizens to think rather than simply obey. All people in a free society benefit when discourse is civil, which means that it should be reasoned, fact-filled, specific, and respectful of the highest moral standards the country has traditionally embraced. Let us think and speak clearly and with the best of intentions.”
Thomas C. Reeves writes from Wisconsin. Among his dozen books are Twentieth Century America: A Brief History, and biographies of John F. Kennedy, Joseph R. McCarthy, Fulton Sheen, Walter J. Kohler, Jr and Chester A. Arthur.
MercatorNet: Being civilised in the culture war

Wry Catcher · #4 (**permalink**) 07-29-2010, 10:55 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalChic

Quote: Originally Posted by Madeline

Back atcha, miss. No need to attack one another as people just because we dun agree on an issue.

And, this from Mercatornet...

"Name-calling is akin to hitting your opponent over the head with a club, an approach to issues that should have been left with the cave dwellers. Rational, fact-filled argumentation is one of civilization's greatest achievements. And it is in very short supply, especially as the Culture War heats up in a period dominated on the national level by the Democratic Party. The snippets of angry confrontation featured on television talk shows rarely spread either knowledge or understanding. PBS, the Fox News Network, and C-Span have their bipartisan moments. But a shouting match between, say, Eleanor Clift and Sean Hannity is more the norm. On many radio and television outlets, especially the major newspapers, ideological monologue is the norm. And that inevitably means name-calling.

The constant recourse to obscenity, especially blasphemy and "potty words," is on the same level. Rock stars, stand-up comedians, and movie and television shows have spread this tawdry practice throughout our culture. Many young people, aping the standards of the media, think it's "cool" to employ the "f" word in every other sentence, and think it hopelessly "outdated" to write or speak a coherent, grammatically correct sentence. The most common exclamations in films today are "Oh, my God" and "Jesus Christ!" What's wrong here, aside from the offensive treatment heaped upon believing Christians and Jews, is again the substitution of banalities for thought.

A democracy requires its citizens to think rather than simply obey. All people in a free society benefit when discourse is civil, which means that it should be reasoned, fact-filled, specific, and respectful of the highest moral standards the country has traditionally embraced. Let us think and speak clearly and with the best of intentions.”
Thomas C. Reeves writes from Wisconsin. Among his dozen books are Twentieth Century America: A Brief History, and biographies of John F. Kennedy, Joseph R. McCarthy, Fulton Sheen, Walter J. Kohler, Jr and Chester A. Arthur.
MercatorNet: Being civilised in the culture war

"Go fuck yourself"
Dick Cheney

How does a society reclaim civil discourse with leaders such as the former VP?

**PoliticalChic** · #5 (**permalink**) 07-29-2010, 10:58 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Wry Catcher

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalChic

Quote: Originally Posted by Madeline

Back atcha, miss. No need to attack one another as people just because we dun agree on an issue.

And, this from Mercatornet...

"Name-calling is akin to hitting your opponent over the head with a club, an approach to issues that should have been left with the cave dwellers. Rational, fact-filled argumentation is one of civilization's greatest achievements. And it is in very short supply, especially as the Culture War heats up in a period dominated on the national level by the Democratic Party. The snippets of angry confrontation featured on television talk shows rarely spread either knowledge or understanding. PBS, the Fox News Network, and C-Span have their bipartisan moments. But a shouting match between, say, Eleanor Clift and Sean Hannity is more the norm. On many radio and television outlets, especially the major newspapers, ideological monologue is the norm. And that inevitably means name-calling.

The constant recourse to obscenity, especially blasphemy and "potty words," is on the same level. Rock stars, stand-up comedians, and movie and television shows have spread this tawdry practice throughout our culture. Many young people, aping the standards of the media, think it's "cool" to employ the "f" word in every other sentence, and think it hopelessly "outdated" to write or speak a coherent, grammatically correct sentence. The most common exclamations in films today are "Oh, my God" and "Jesus Christ!" What's wrong here, aside from the offensive treatment heaped upon believing Christians and Jews, is again the substitution of banalities for thought.

A democracy requires its citizens to think rather than simply obey. All people in a free society benefit when discourse is civil, which means that it should be reasoned, fact-filled, specific, and respectful of the highest moral standards the country has traditionally embraced. Let us think and speak clearly and with the best of intentions.”
Thomas C. Reeves writes from Wisconsin. Among his dozen books are Twentieth Century America: A Brief History, and biographies of John F. Kennedy, Joseph R. McCarthy, Fulton Sheen, Walter J. Kohler, Jr and Chester A. Arthur.
MercatorNet: Being civilised in the culture war

"Go fuck yourself"
Dick Cheney

How does a society reclaim civil discourse with leaders such as the former VP?

An individual is responsible for him/herself...

it shows a character weakness if one feels intimidated into untoward behavior because another does so.

**xotoxi** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-29-2010, 11:01 AM

I disagree with all of you!!!

You bad people, you!

Madeline · #7 (**permalink**) 07-29-2010, 02:18 PM

You will need an escort to the parking lot after that, xotoxi!

*Laughs*