Reader says Civility actually encourages disagreement, conflict, and the passionate exchange of ideas
I’m curious how a brainstorming meeting about respecting others, complete with disagreement, could become “social intimidation tactics”, disallowing the raising of an eyebrow. And as per the intro Patrick Henry graphic, I’d like to include the rest of Henry’s statement: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry was a slaveholder.
Democracy requires disagreement. It’s only in totalitarian societies that dissent is silenced. Civility actually encourages disagreement, conflict, and the passionate exchange of ideas. Civility provides a platform for debate. Civility is not antithetical to free speech. We all have a lowest common denominator and our exercise of free speech can devolve into insults, verbal abuse, or hate speech. And while I think we can generally find a more grown-up way to express ourselves, I am single-minded about free speech being the cornerstone of a free society.
The problem is, when the mud-slinging starts, we can all get dirty, and whatever the “political debate” was about does too. In a democracy, not only should everyone have a voice, but it is the civic duty of everyone to use that voice. Insults, character assassinations, namely a suspension of civil, respectful disagreement – that silences dissent.
Check out these comments to an article on CNS relating the FEC’s plans to regulate Blogs.
from:
https://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/rudy-takala/federal-election-commission-consider-regulating-online-political-speech
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PhantomOps5 minutes ago
I’m just going to throw this out there…is there anything liberals don’t want to regulate? I find it interesting, as an Independent, that liberals claim conservatives want to control everyone’s lives, but from where I view it, it’s the other way around.
disqus_LpicJRrFVL5 minutes ago
they hate truth. cant lie as freely when theres journalists who havent sold out their country and still hold the politicians accountable
SMoYo5 minutes ago
And thus yet another child of liberty can be sacrificed on the altar of fairness.
musiccitydawg5 minutes ago
And THIS my friends is WHY we have the 2ND AMENDMENT.
Arnold Ruge5 minutes ago
But here is where it matters, on the Internet, THE REAL COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION, where the REAL FACTS are found and not those skewered and monopolized by the capitalist media machine. Here people can have an EQUAL VOICE, and police and governments are powerless to STOP IT!
Redlovers6 minutes ago
Communist Chinese government is very proud of you FEC for emulating them
Daniel Petry6 minutes ago
Fck every single one of you POS! I will say what I want, when I want, and to whom I want. Fck off! It is getting close to the time when we need to settle this BS with either a bullet or a rope.
SGT Ted6 minutes ago
This just proves that “campaign finance” laws are really about policing speech in favor of Government over citizens.
Any Government agency that monitors citizens political speech should be disbanded.
kstech6 minutes ago
It never ends, a fresh liberty stomping story daily these days
Perplexed6 minutes ago
Of course this is unconstitutional but not surprising under obama. Just shows how easy it is to defy the Constitution when one belongs to a special privilege group and everyone just pretends that what is obvious isn’t.
Shadoh216 minutes ago
When has government intervention ever been helpful to the private markets?
johnintoledo7 minutes ago
These regulations would be a constraint on free speech.
TheDissentingVoice7 minutes ago
Out-of-control-government.
billnga7 minutes ago
Keep your ‘ing hands off of free speech. The bottom line of “net neutrality” is exactly this, the bastar*s want to control everything!!!!
trustandobeyalways7 minutes ago
they have to get aggressive and do this now, before the pentagon /epstein pedophile/pederast scandals go viral, and they know it
scarlet pimpernel7 minutes ago
You don’t have to have death camps to be a FASCIST COUNTRY.
PenelopeAnne7 minutes ago
So if you can’t threaten them through the IRS, just go straight for the jugular. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again – for public protection, of course.
Andyman7 minutes ago
We should hold a meeting on eliminating the fec.
LibertarianUSA427 minutes ago
these bureaucrats should be tried for treason and hung for stifling the constitution. These globalists will never learn.
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
James Madison