I hope. That’s not always easy.

This is a shortened version of a piece I posted to a discussion forum. It was probably after yet another extended thread on an interesting topic had devolved into name-calling, insults, and calls — from the namecallers and insulters — for the thread to be shut down. Discussion forums, alas, seem to have largely died out on the Internet, but this piece still sums up my view of talking online.

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An evangelical hostility to smart, extended debate has become the norm all over the Internet.  

Here and elsewhere I’ve seen people apologize for either posting OPs that resulted in long and fascinating discussions, or for taking part in such discussions. (In contrast, I’ve seen very few apologies posted for almost interminable threads in which people do nothing but post sex jokes, funny pitchers, and links to comic sketches.) I’ve seen people hop onto interesting threads and deliberately derail them into nonsense. I’ve seen reasoned disagreement equated with “trolling.”

There seem to be several factors at work. One is an inability to distinguish polite disagreement from personal affront. Another is the fact that it’s easier to offer ‘tude in lieu of logical argument, which can involve a certain amount of work (as opposed to making faces and thinking up insults.)

Yet another is the notion of online forums as territory. Sometimes people who have an established presence on a forum believe they should be able to browse the thread headers on the homepage without being upset by the subject lines.

And finally, there’s the widespread belief that one is entitled to the last word. A bizarre but common reaction to argument I’ve encountered online is the poster who objects to getting civil and thoughtful responses to his or her own posts and plainly considers it harassment — even as he or she continues to respond to the person he or she is complaining about.

Surely there’s room for a few small pockets of sense online? Let’s stop apologizing for spending time actually talking about issues rather than playing video games and browsing for funny cat pictures. If you enjoy discussion – even debate — then politely discuss and debate as long as you have time and the subject interests you.

And if you don’t, well hey, there are plenty of threads and forums where you can indulge in a taste for nonsense. Nobody is forcing you to read or take part in, or even continue in a thread that makes you uncomfortable.

Please don’t try to get them shut down.

If I’m wrong, and in fact, someone is standing over you with a sharp stick or gun forcing you to respond to posts in a thread you dislike, you should know that this is illegal and people who do that should go to jail. I suggest we use a safe word you can gently work into the conversation, like “eggplant.”

If we see that, we’ll continue the discussion – but discreetly signal someone else so they can call the police and get you out of there.