Trash Talk

Elizabeth Wurzel, author of Prozac Nation, wrote an interesting commentary piece, “Trash Talk,” in last Monday's Wall Street Journal.  Ms. Wurzel is discussing a recent situation at Yale where some women were "trash talked" on a law school website called AutoAdmit, and as a result one of the woman's hirability was compromised.  While fully defending the First Amendment right to free speech Ms. Wurzel wonders what is to be done.

In such a world, what to do about AutoAdmit? To start with, pray for mercy, because based on the content of its postings, the future of jurisprudence does not look good. Having done that, plead for civility. Just because we can say anything, does that mean we must say everything? While I could never advocate censorship, I would certainly ask for sensitivity.

I'd like to think that we here on this blog are answering her call to civility.  Our quest for more modesty in the world is not enacted by shrill demands for Modesty Laws or Clothing Censorship.  Instead, we do our best to encourage a love of things modest while pointing out how much more fruitful and rewarding the modest life is. Naturally, we recognize that people have a right to wear whatever they want, but aren't we trying to encourage people to be considerate to others in this respect?

Ms. Wurzel continues:

We all have to live in this world, all seven billion of us, brushing closer and closer together, and bristling in this claustrophobia. Maybe we ought to be slightly more careful before we say whatever it is we feel compelled to freely express. Maybe we ought to stop, have a hesitation, before pressing the send button.

I can definitely agree with the feeling that we are all "brushing closer and closer together" and because we live in a—as we like to say these days—global village, it seems that more civility and charity towards one another is the prescription.  And as I have just said, I believe that encouraging others to "the good" without adding to the deafening noise of incivility should be the communal goal.  After all, isn't modesty itself, that moderate mode of behavior, a form of civility towards others?    

Comments

[wendy]

As the old Jewish proverb goes, "A wise man knows what he says; a foolish man says what he knows."

[Emily]

Surprised to see Ms Wurtzel on the modesty blog. Not bad-surprised, just surprised :)

Anyway, one thing I note about this blog is that while it does very often get posts from people who disagree vehemently with the bloggers, there are few ad hominem attacks and there's no spamm or "U R ALL Fxxxxx"-type posts. The comments we make are not automatically uploaded, obviously that's because someone looks at each submission and either trashes them or allows them.

Having this intercept does maybe mean losing something in sponteneity and perhaps there's not as much dialogue possible- I've frequently posted something, and someone else has posted something similar at the same time, but it wasn't up when I saw it. But I think this is a small price to pay, because KNOWING that your comment better be lucid, well-thought out and respectful of other readers or noone will ever get to see it means that in the end a much higher standar of discourse is possible.

[Alexandra Foley]

Emily, That is great point. It never occurred to me that having the comments moderated forces people with dissenting opinions to better articulate their arguments without being, as you say, ad hominem or outright hostile. I often wonder what crazy comments we do get and are filtered from us, but I really appreciate that the moderator lets in ones that are on the verge of hostile, shall we say. It keeps things interesting and it is important that we all engage those ideas.

No one benefits from sticking one's head in the sand, in my opinion.

[admin]

Well, wonder no more: one recent comment was that we are all a bunch of lesbians, LOL.

[spudmom]

Very funny, wonder what my 6 kids would think of that!

There is an aspect of mob mentality in anonymous blogging that is similar to what happens when people put on masks or hoods. The cure is to restore responsiblity for the words one uses. If instead of being able to Google a person to discover what others say about him or her, what would it be like if we were able to read all of what a person posted or said in public, instead? Maybe as employers, we need to ask for the screen names of our applicants (but I doubt we would get more than a sugar coated list.)

By the way, Wendy, thanks for filtering the scum off the pond.

[thejoyprincess]

Just an aside...here's a link to the WaPo article about the law school "trash talking"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030602705_pf.html

[wendy]

Thanks guys, I wish I could take all the credit but there have been two noble souls helping with moderating the comments, so a big thank you to them as well for keeping the discussion lively yet civil. I would name them but we've also gotten death threats as comments so I don't really see a benefit to 'outing' them. But it is nice to know that people appreciate the moderation.

[R.B.]

Wurzel is awfully polite to those jerks on AutoAdmit. Anonymous threats and harassment are not constitutionally protected speech. They are not equivalent to heated words in a legitimate argument. There are things AutoAdmit could have done to stop the harassment without violating anybody's rights. The mods could have banned anonymous posts, or posts that include personal information. They could have ousted participants who have a history of harassing others. The right to free speech is a right against the government's using force to shut you up. It is not a right to post violent threats in a public forum.

Sorry, but it really bugs me when people treat harassment targeted at an individual as the equivalent of bluntness, just because some people are offended by bluntness. The word 'civility' only blurs the distinction.

That said, I appreciate the lack of spam and harassing comments on this site, and I appreciate the fact that you still post my comments. (Trust me, if I didn't respect your forum I wouldn't tone it down half as much as I do.) Thanks, mods.