Dick Polman, cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, writes a regular column in the Philadelphia Inquirer called the American Debate.
On Sunday, his column was titled The incivility death spiral. In it he notes that “millions now seem to assume that an Internet connection is a license to indulge their most sociopathic impulses.”
No where is that more apparent than in the responses to articles in the Courier Times. Things the worst of us may have merely thought 10 years ago are now considered worthy discourse on the Courier blog posts.
Polman was using as his example of incivility the way people on the right were rooting for the death of Ted Kennedy while those on the left were doing the same for Dick Cheney when he entered the hospital with chest pains. This behavior is only the tip of the incivility ice berg.
He is correct when he states “Part of the problem, of course, is that our brave new digital world allows people to root for death from the safe confines of anonymity. I bet they would spare us their most toxic thoughts if they were required to put their names to the words, and take some measure of responsibility.”
That’s the problem with these people – responsibility is not a part of their lexicon. As Polman sates, “incivility extremism can’t be stopped. All we can do is call it out, in the name of civility. I've just done that. You should do the same.”
Well, now I have as well.
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