Civil War, civil discourse
Ed Cone on the sometimes goofy, often off-point, many times irrational comments attached to letters to the editor:
All this is kind of amusing, but it's also alarming. People aren't discussing issues, they are arguing with phantoms. The more we dehumanize each other, the easier it is to ignore each other.
What he said.
It's not just the letters comments. We deal with this on many of our blogs, including this one. And I'm not talking about what I write. I'm used to people taking my words out of context, ascribing to me opinions I don't have and making baseless assertions about me and the newspaper. No, this is about the ensuing discussion among us all. We've tried to address it with registration, admonitions and deletions. We've tried to ignore comments coming from trolls, but others don't and so the discussion spins on. I've heard from plenty of people who would like to discuss substance, but don't want to enter into the din with the shouters.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm hopeful that as the form grows and matures so will the level of interaction. Meantime, read Ed's air-clearing post. (This post should not in any way tie me to Ed's Kennedy-loving Bolshevik leanings.)
Comments (2)
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You hate America too, don't you JR.
Posted on March 3, 2006 3:56 PM
John, you're far more optimistic than I am. I've often said that if this can't work in Greensboro -- a town in which "Friendly" isn't just the name of a shopping center -- it can't work anywhere. And you're still being overrun at times.
I like Ed's point that the comments aren't too "personal" -- they're too impersonal. I'd love to see reader feedback evolve to the point at which people are actually engaging with their local journalists instead of some caricature of journalists/Bolsheviks handed down from political spin doctors. (On both "sides," btw -- you seem to attract so-called "conservative" trolls, but there are plenty on the "left" as well.)
If you find an answer for keeping any substantive discussion on topic rather than degenerating into red-blue nonsense that has little to do with the original subject, by all means, please share.
Posted on March 8, 2006 10:51 AM