Miss Manners cannot help noticing that our basic forums for the open exchange of ideas are flailing
: classrooms, lecture halls, town halls and legislatures. When everyone is spewing invectives and personal insults -- and, in the worst cases, threats -- nothing gets accomplished.
Some rules are obvious. If everyone talks at once, or if speakers are shouted down, no one is heard. If irrelevant topics are introduced, everyone will be there all night. But the difference between a personal attack and legitimate criticisms of individuals’ actions can seem vague. Miss Manners can tell the difference, but she cannot be everywhere at once.
To work out the limits and judge individual cases will require people of good will to work together, accepting the notion that there are words and actions that they can legally express, but nevertheless should not. That they are entitled to express their views strongly, but must temper them to allow civil discourse, rather than a fruitless exchange of insults.
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