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Civil Discourse – language should be clear, dignified and unambiguous. The public square should be open to all points of view and let people decide to whom they wish to listen. ## Many are the efforts to blur meaning and minimize the severity of sin – steal becomes lift, murder becomes zap, adultery becomes playing around. Or complete reversals – hack, bad, wicked, dope, sick and kill now have positive definitions in some circles. Or fluidize – social justice, diversity, inclusiveness – to mean whatever is conveniently needed at the moment.
Working past language distortions, civil discourse requires a willingness to respect and debate differing viewpoints. And to compromise as necessary for the good of society. Such compromising previously resulted in bell-shaped curves with the majority of Americans either center-left or center-right. Not so much today. We see polarization and U-shaped curves with more and more people choosing oppositional positions as compromise is seen as weakness.
Academia and social media have become especially guilty of banning certain points of view from public debate to “protect” listeners/readers from what they deem politically incorrect. For too many, it’s not enough to allow people to choose not to listen or read; they want to prevent them from having that choice. Thus are differences of opinion turned into causes for hostile disagreement.Share
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