Over the past nine months, the United States has seen an alarming collapse in the civility of our discourse. I’m not going to claim that the left was particularly civil in the Bush opposition, especially during the more contentious periods, but what we’re seeing now is a whole new animal.
So far, what we know is that president Obama is at least one of the following: a Nazi, a Communist, a Muslim, a Kenyan citizen, the Antichrist. We’ve watched as teabaggers flash signs comparing Democrats to the Third Reich and normally “serious” pundits make similar allusions between health care reform and the Khmer Rouge.
Both the right and the left recognize this problem for what it is. As these people have dominated the airwaves, the ability to truly discuss, well, anything has been swept aside in favor of alarmism and hysteria. We can’t talk about the costs of a health care bill because people swarm town hall meetings talking about euthanasia and eugenics. We can’t talk about war because Obama’s actually a Muslim from Kenya that’s working with Al Qaeda. Democrats are busy trying to argue down the nutjobs and Republicans can’t get a legitimate discussion started because of them.
How to deal with the problem has puzzled us for a while now. These people won’t listen to rational thought, we know this much. The “death panel” people won’t accept the notion that there aren’t any death panels. The Bachmanns are going to say the Census will lead to internment camps run by FEMA and setup by ACORN. At the same time, dropping to their level will neither solve anything nor help anyone.
So, I propose an alternate solution: Ignore them. For one month.
For all of October, do not dignify the crazies with so much as your attention, let alone a response. If we’re calling this fringe a growing inferno, deprive it of oxygen and eventually it will die. Any time an article shows up in your feed that says something about a someone calling Obama the next Hitler or squawking about ACORN and death panels, ignore it. Don’t read it, don’t let it bother you at all. If you see it on the news, change the channel. For you Daily Show and Olbermann junkies, this means ignoring some of their stuff as well. No Worst Persons, no segments about Glenn Beck. I’m serious.
This also means if you have a blog of your own, and you’d like to participate, for a solid month you don’t write any articles focusing on the “easy targets” of wingnut loonies. I’m not going to pretend that my reach extends to the “real media”, but it would be phenomenal to see this land on broadcast airwaves. Not just for my own ego, but because it would be a step in the right direction. One we need.
A note: this is not a call for insulation. Quite the opposite, in fact. It means that instead of letting your exposure to the “other side” being a WorldNetDaily article about Obama’s birth certificate, it’s an article by Pat Buchanan about Iran. Instead of a post on FreeRepublic and reading the comments calling Obama a monkey, it’s a George Will article about presidential caving. Instead of Chuck Norris and tea-stained flags, try Will Winkenwerder discussing alternate health care options.
On my side, that means that until November 1st, at least, there won’t be any videos of crazies with horrible signs, no quotes of the day calling attention to inflammatory name-calling, no rants about someone else’s rants.
I admit that ignoring the shouters is neither easy nor particularly enjoyable. There’s a primal part of our brains that wants to not only engage them directly, but defeat them. We feel like people who are being “jerks” should have comeuppance of some kind, and just letting them go off and yell without any “repercussions” means they’re “getting away with it”. We feel like they should be dealt with in one way or another.
But really, what does it do for us? To read comments on a board that makes us angry, to watch an Ann Coulter video, or listen to something from MediaMatters where a guy says that the New Jersey kids singing about Obama are like 1930′s Germany does nothing but tax our mind and get us angry. It’s unnecessary stress that doesn’t lead toward any kind of true solution. Outrage is a short-term high, with a bad hangover.
It also takes some strength to engage those who disagree with you instead of focusing on the nutjobs. It means you may have to read a well-thought and eloquent article that has the potential to make you re-think where you stand on a given issue, instead of reading a pro-universal health care article and then looking at a picture of a “bury Obamacare with Kennedy” sign. That’s important, too.
But that’s exactly what we have to do. Giving the fringe attention is precisely what’s gotten us to the point of murdered Census workers and Swastika signs. So, hopefully, this meager plea for civility will spread, and we’ll all be better off for it. Left and right.
So how about them Bears? ^_^
More like how bout them Stillers! Damn guys, show up to PLAY once in a while. :'(
I understand and commend your point here in this post. It would be good if the blogosphere and the mainstream media could/would ignore those spewing hate and misinformation (on both sides of the aisle), and I take your point about feeling the need to respond to them, but I wonder…. I wonder if they would see it as a victory of the MMS/liberal blogs stopped talking about them. After all, all they do is shout, and what is the best way to feel that you have won a shouting match? When the other side is silenced. Now, don't get me wrong, just because they might consider it a victory does not mean that it would be one, nor does it mean that your October-fast suggestion should be thrown to the wolves, it is, however, something to consider. Also, someone has to call them on their bs, even if that means playing into their hands because if bullshit is not called then they will just continue to get crazier and crazier which equates to stronger and stronger in their beliefs, attitudes, and approaches to "civil discourse," (or lack thereof).
Anyway, I look forward to what kinds of posts you will be bringing us during the month of "tea bagger free" October.
I agree with Ian on this. Silence, in too many cases, implies agreement or consent. If there’s no outrage at unspeakable acts, could the perpetrators feel their acts were justified?
I don’t do too much of most of the things you mentioned – I’d gouge my own eyeballs out of my head with a spoon before I’d read anything by Coulter. I won’t participate in right-wing forums and try to not even read too many comments in them.
I do understand the point you are making…ranting about them just feeds their egos or need for attention or whatever, and ignoring or shunning can be an effective tool on a small scale (forum trolls tend to disappear when nobody responds to anything they type). But when the issues are so large and affect so many people, and the lunatic minority is so vocal and persistent and their message is based on hate and greed and selfishness, speaking up seems the only option to me.
I wish you luck. If you can do this, you’re a better man than I am ;^)
Speaking only for myself, venting (my fav hobby) is a poor substitute for action (plus Hanlon, Rachel, and Keith already said it so much better).
True, it's more fun to sit here with my laptop than go to a demonstration for the public option or do phone banking to support equal rights for my LGBT brothers and sisters back at home in Maine. So maybe I should be venting at myself (for my laziness and self-indulgence–which I CAN do something about) then shaking my virtual fist at people who are (let's be honest) very, very sick, so infected with a plague of fear and rage and lies that they're powerless against their own madness.
And as much as I agree there, the idea of "agreement" and "consent" is only workable when the other side is reasonable. This is more like dealing with children throwing a tantrum. When a five year old thrashes on the floor because he wants Cocoa Pebbles and there aren't any in the house, what's the proper solution? Don't give him the attention he wants, and eventually he'll quiet down. Yell back and all you're doing is making yourself angrier and exacerbating the situation.
Join me on this one. I promise you'll feel better. Plus you can use the energy to read up on stuff instead of watching video of things that anger you.
and Republicans can’t get a legitimate discussion started because of them.
Which Republicans are those?
Ian: After all, all they do is shout, and what is the best way to feel that you have won a shouting match? When the other side is silenced.
And yet, the best way to beat a troll is to ignore him. Don't feet the troll.
Additionally, wingers are exceptionally skilled at changing the LANGUAGE of a topic. Instead of talking about a woman's right to privacy, it's all about souls and now the argument becomes 'you're killing babies' 'no I'm not', instead of the legality. If the wingers are responded to, then they are shaping the debate with their outrage. By using the enemy's language, he's all ready won.
[...] the beginning of the month I swore off bogging my mind down with wingnuttery in what I called the “October-fast”. It was a simple premise: for one month I wouldn’t read any stories or watch any video clips, [...]