More on blogging and civility--
Mark Bernstein on Unusually Hostile, in which Mark looks the elephant in the eye and says, "Enough ad hominem attacks already!"--and a few other useful things.
Then Robot Alarm Clock (yes it is a pseudonym, but some of us are more free less beholden have fewer extraneous obligations than others) says
On one level, I appreciate what Mark has to say. As a professor, ideas are my business, and I value reasoned discourse in my classrooms. The blogosphere isn’t a classroom though, and we need to be careful that we don’t shut down important forms of free expression with the mantra of civility. Civility tends to reinforce forms of expression that are acceptable and sanctioned by the current system. If we’re to make real progress as a society (real or virtual) we may need the freedom on occasion to break free of these constraints.
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