A Civil Discussion?

Can we disagree without being disagreeable?

We live in an age — a social media age, more precisely — where it is perfectly acceptable to bash people with whose ideas or values we disagree. We put a hashtag in front of the latest form of opprobrium we can find, append it to someone, and voila! we’ve created a movement. Harvey Weinstein? Kevin Spacey? We created #Me Too (and its concomitant #Me Eww trope).

What happened to civil discourse? Common courtesy? The answer, I suggest, is simple. It’s been consumed: consumed by impatience, by selfishness, by laziness, by lack of proper (or any) training in etiquette as children. As a result, we don’t live by the Golden Rule, of treating people the way we (should) like to be treated.

People are social creatures. We quickly learn from what we see. So when a boor named John McEnroe has temper tantrums on the tennis court, it sets an example. When a so-called “celebrity” chef named Gordon Ramsay berates and belittles people, it sets an example. When other celebrities, including political leaders such as Donald Trump, engage in name-calling or worse, it sets an example. And then we start following that example.

Comedians have frequently used profanities to create shock-value and opportunities for laughs. Today, I suppose we all think we’re comedians. Now, in virtually…