If I had one Christmas wish this year, it would be to ask for a little civility.
I know, there’s a certain irony that a guy who’s paid to be critical of people and their decisions is wishing for a more courteous world, but the slope we find ourselves on these days when it comes to public discourse is as slippery as ever.
Social media is a wonderful tool that accomplishes so much good, but it’s also provided a platform that allows, let’s just say, an unfiltered exchange of opinions. Spirited debate on any topic is a worthwhile endeavour, but far too often this dialogue ends up as nothing more than a name-calling exercise where positions get entrenched and those monikers get increasingly more offensive.
If there are two willing combatants, who am I to stand in the way, but what this kind of regular interaction seems to be doing is normalizing such behaviour. I guess I shouldn’t have been, but I was gobsmacked when someone recently asked why I didn’t run their letter to the editor that called someone else a f*#!ing crook. The letter was bad enough, but it was the incredulous inquiry that really hit home for me. How anyone would think that type of language would be appropriate is beyond me, but I guess that’s the world we live in today.
There’s greater latitude when commenting through Disqus at the bottom of our online stories or doing so on our Facebook page, but we’re still a newspaper so even there we must have rules governing decorum, much to the chagrin of a select number of contributors. There’s a fine line between allowing people to have their say and stepping over that line, and although we don’t like to play censor, we’re finding ourselves in that role with increasing frequency.
It’s not the position they take, but the vitriol they use to bolster it, a sort of open season on the subjects of our stories, on us for writing about them or on other commenters who have the audacity to disagree. Stuff you wouldn’t say to their face in the grocery aisle – or at least I hope you wouldn’t – is uttered without a second thought in the online community.
Disagree all you want, but do so in a respectful manner. I know, I know, I’m asking for a lot, but that would be one heck of a Christmas gift.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
