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[KMOD]

This message was self-deleted by its author (KMOD) on Mon Oct 19, 2015, 04:17 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[Journeyman]

1. In the early '60s, Lenny Bruce wondered if "Playboy" had something to do with the new civility . . .

It's hard, Bruce observed, to be that suave, sophisticated, man-about-town while you drive around in your car yelling racial epithets at people you pass on the street.

I suspect, KMOD, there's more to your observation than most of us would like to acknowledge. The internet probably has given more reign to the idiots among us that they may spout their hatred without consequence. But then, it's also given more light upon those who do act so crudely, and helped the rest of us to see where we as a people can improve.

I like to believe there's a majority among us who truly wish to see a new world arise. Not everyone can express themselves as cogently as they'd like, and certainly not as well as the ever-ready detractors will accept, but at heart most of us want something better. And part of our inability to express this well lies in our not understanding what it is we want, or what will satisfy our neighbor, let alone what the majority secretly crave. So we stumble along, looking for answers (sometimes in the wrong places), but ever mindful that the world will be better for each of us if it is better for us all.

Or at least that's the way it appears to this old man, here in this late summer eve, at the end of an overly-long day.

Take care. We have a distance to travel and the road isn't very smooth, but the more of us who traverse it and the longer we progress, the smoother it will become and the more tangible our destination will seem.

[djean111]

2. I think it used to be that words had consequences. Unless someone tracks a person down

using an IP address or something like that, internet words really have no consequences.

And - what a bubbling stew - some days I don't know what is worse, festering hatred, or the smug assumption that one is right - and everyone else is wrong and stupid if they do not agree. I think the internet enables people to connect with like-minded people, and there is an awful and a beautiful power to that. Before the net, people were mostly confined to actually meeting other people in person, at meetings, work, church, shopping, hobbies, things like that - but personal. Even letters to the editor are/were carefully controlled and dribbled out to suit the editor.

This was recognized early on by those in charge, IMO, and now we have the ability to amass and coordinate huge demonstrations - but now, of course, the police are armed and ready and primed to deal with demonstrators as terrorists.

There will always be bigots. I grew up around people who hated Catholics, Jews, Italians, Polish, Black people, Latinos, gay people. All we can do is legislate against the effects of bigotry. Check this site out - The Racial Slur Database
http://www.rsdb.org/

And now all the people who believe in those slurs can find each other.