GreyWolf

I apologise... I responded to the article and not your comments thereon. My mistake.

But first - confusing intolerance with incivility. The author claims that he cannot call someone a backwards savage over that person's belief that stoning of women is acceptable; that the author must understand and not condemn. The backwards savage is incivility. Condemnation is not. Not accepting stoning is intolerance of the stoning. It is perfectly all right to be intolerant of things that should not be tolerated. Name calling is impolite, and generally unproductive. I feel he has confused the two.

Now - is society becoming less civil? I think so. Among other things, the anonymity of the internet allows flaming insults to go without stricture beyond (maybe) being banned from a forum. Previously, social ostracism made people far less likely to stray outside societal norms. We don't get that now, and it moves from the net to mainstream life. As well, "shock jock" style celebrity has become mainstream, leading people to believe you can discuss the most intimate subjects openly, and freely criticise anyone who doesn't support your position.

This is not a good thing. While I don't like guns myself, or advocate their use for anything much other than hunting, perhaps there is something to the old saying "an armed society is a polite society."

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