Civility

[NewHampster]

ci·vil·i·ty
–noun, plural -ties.
1. courtesy; politeness.
2. a polite action or expression: an exchange of civilities.
3. Archaic. civilization; culture; good breeding.


—Synonyms 1. affability, amiability, manners, tact.

ci·vil·i·ty
Something it appears many on DU never learned.

[Redstone]

1. Like when whe tell you that a supercilious and hifalutin attitude like that is annoying?

Redstone

[Blashyrkh]

4. Indeed. Nothing courteous about being lectured like a 6 year old.

[Xipe Totec]

5. The only six year old I detected was scotch

Redstone made a good point, though the motor skills left something to be desired.

Not picking a fight, just pointing out facts.

:hi:

[Blashyrkh]

7. And I agree with him. My comment was directed towards the OP.

I know when I start using dictionary definitions like that I'm going for maximum condescension.

[Xipe Totec]

2. An armed society is a polite society

Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.

- Robert A. Heinlein

[Redstone]

6. Gee, how polite has America gotten, given all the guns we have? And you're quoting

Robert Heinlein, one for the WORST hack writers who ever lived? The one who, in one of his books (I don't remember which, but I remember the hack writing) had a character who was GLARINGLY obviously supposed to represent old Heinie himself...

well, let me get to the point: In a scene when his manly manliness caused some stunning youn woman to grope his Johnson (and it was an impressively large one, of course) as she was falling under his manly-man spell, to exclaim, breathlessly"

"Oh, I KNEW you would be a stallion!"

That's the point at which I closed the book, never to read a word of his again.

You're going to take political / societal pronoucements from a guy who will write such as drivel being MEANINGFUL?

Redstone

[Xipe Totec]

8. Just because he's a hack

doesn't mean he's always wrong.

I don't want to get into an argument about who's the worst hack writer who ever lived; there's no point in that discussion.

My point stands and is proven here; we can be impolite to each other precisely because there are no long term consequences.

The worst that can happen is to be banned from the site.

[Redstone]

9. One more time: Is American society polite? Doesn't seem so to me. And it's the

society in the world (except maybe Iraq's) that's the most saturated with guns.

Let's see, does anyone on the highway seem afraid to give another driver "the finger" out their window, because someone might shoot them for doing it?

I didn't think so. Your whole (and Heinlein's) premise is a macho, swinging-dick fantasy that ultimately is full of shit and utterly illogical.

And, furthermore, maybe YOU want to live in a society where you (or your wife or your child) would be likely to be murdered because some armed asshole interprets what you or they say as an insult, but I do not. (But of course, in your Heinlienan fantasy society, the Manly Men wold all be responsible Stallions, omniscient as to whether the person they were murdering was Someone Who Deserved It or not.)

Not my kind of utopia, at all.

PS: Have you ever killed anyone. Ever been shot yourself? If so, that might deflate your fantasy balloon a bit.

Redstone

[Deja Q]

3. Well, if other people didn't breed good enough, we wouldn't be here.

:P

[specwar]

10. Isn't it obvious

If you look at the opening sign in page it plainly tells you that they do not wish any diversity of ideas. "You should agree with the progressive philosophy". That is funny, because I have found that I always learn the most when talking to people with ideas different than my own. So they will be civil with people that only believe in what they believe in. That is too bad. It is that narrow thinking that is the reason why you can't talk about politics at work without somebody yelling (usually the person who can't back up the argument).