Blogs, Civility and Mosh-Pit Politics

If the current health care “debate” is an indicator of the health of the body politic, then we are sick puppies indeed.  Town hall meetings, the basis of democracy in colonial America, have devolved into shouting matches more reminiscent of episodes of the Jerry Springer Show (my favorite recent title: “I cheated on my cousin with a tranny” than a civil give-and-take  between Congressional leaders and their constituents.  Both public officials and those on both sides of the issue that came for a serious discussion on health care were drowned out by the shouts of  angry protesters.  Two of the low points were a woman yelling “Heil Hitler” at a Jewish man discussing health care in Israel  and where a woman in a wheelchair with two incurable autoimmune diseases talking about the need for affordable health care  was heckled by the crowd.    But discussions about the nature of political discourse were not raised in a meaningful way until Joe Wilson shouted “You Lie!” during President Obama’s health care address to Congress.  The decline of civility in society did not receive  serious attention until Serena Williams threatened to shove a tennis ball down the line judge’s throat at the U.S. Open (kids, don’t try this at home) and when Kayne West snatched the microphone away from Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards and proclaimed Beyonce had produced one of the best videos of all time the award for best female video (One of the best mashups is this one combining the Joe Wilson and Kanye West outbursts).  Those who hoped that the Joe Wilson outburst would put an end to the coarseness of political discourse had to be disappointed (but not surprised) by those who showed up at the 9/12 protests, which was about as civil as a mosh pit at a Warped Tour  (actually this statement is not fair to moshers who DO have rules of etiquette )  The protesters sported signs such as “Oppressive, Bloodsucking Arrogant Muslim Alien,”” Racist in Chief”, “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy”  and Obama with a Hitler mustache with the message “Is This Your President?” As 9/12 defenders noted, not all the incivility came from the protesters.  Those covering the 9/12 protests could be uncivil also.

While mass communication scholars, working in such areas as the public sphere and democratic deliberation, have discussed how offline and online conversation can aid or impede democratic discussion, much less attention has been paid specifically to the Internet and civility.  Perhaps the most important work in this area was done on Usenet groups by Zizi Papacharissi in New Media and Society.  She noted, correctly, that civility is not the same as politeness.  Online discussions can be heated, they may even be rude, but comments don’t become uncivil until they show disrespect for the collective traditions of democracy. Papacharissi operationalized incivility as “the set of behaviors that threaten democracy, deny people their personal freedoms, and stereotype social groups.” Therefore, she looked at posts from 10 news groups ranging from alt.politics.nationalism.texas (I couldn’t resist) to talk.politics.theory  She asked “Does the discussant verbalize a threat to democracy (e.g. propose to overthrow a democratic government by force)? (2) Does the discussant assign stereotypes (e.g. associate person with a group by using labels, whether those are mild – ‘liberal’, or more offensive – ‘faggot’)? (3) Does the discussant threaten other individuals’ rights (e.g. personal freedom, freedom to speak)?”  Only 14% of the messages she examined were uncivil with two thirds of those assigning stereotypes.   This study was done more than five years ago, before the rise of blogs. I wonder if these results would still hold today? (attention:  potential study alert!).   Some critics charge that online source are increasing polarization in society because the anonymity of blogs and other online sources embolden people to attack political “others.”   Research by Cass Sunstein notes that people are also increasingly seeking out partisan sites of likeminded individuals.  This is causing what Cass Sunstein has called “enclave extremism.” As people gather in these cocoons with people who only share and reinforce their views, people’s views tend to get even more extreme.  A recent experiment by Hwang, Borah, Namkoong and Veenstra reinforces and expands on Sunstein’s findings. They first had liberal and conservative students read a balanced story by Associated Press on climate change.  The study manipulated tone of blog commentary on this article so that some read civil stories other read uncivil ones. They also manipulated ideology of the blog comments to examine the influence of whether the blog comments reinforced their views (e.g. A liberal reading blog criticism of conservative positions) or countered them (e.g. a liberal reading a blog post critical of their position).  They found that incivility in blogs led to negative political effects such as reducing open-mindedness.  But  reading uncivil blogs that challenged their political views led to increased negative emotions, less open-mindedness, an increased polarization in beliefs as well as a greater tendency to want to engage in discussions with political opponents.

I have noticed a distinct decline in civility of political discussion in the last few years, although concerns about the health of civic discourse is hardly new; George Washington wrote Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation before he turned 16.  Some of the rules have become a bit dated (e.g. 13.  Kill no Vermin as Fleas, lice ticks &c in the Sight of Others, if you See any filth or thick Spittle put your foot Dexterously upon it if it be upon the Cloths of your Companions, Put it off privately, and if it be upon your own Cloths return Thanks to him who puts it off).  Others offer  more sound, up-to-date advice:  Treat everyone with respect; Be considerate of others; Do not argue with your superiors. Submit your ideas with humility; Don’t be quick to believe bad behaviors in others; Associate with good people. It is better to be alone than in bad company; Always allow reason to govern your actions; Do not be quick to talk about something when you don’t have all the facts; and Don’t allow yourself to become jaded, cynical or calloused (note:  these are modern translations of his original words).

I am curious what you think. Has there been a decline in civility and an  increase in Mosh-Pit Poltics in recent years?  To what degree do you think partisan media such as blogs, talk radio and 24-hour news stations are leading to a decline in civility in the body politic?  Are they a cause, a symptom or both?  Actually, mosh pits may not be a bad idea for members of Congress.  They would let members blow off some steam and nervous energy.  Veteran moshers do follow a set of rules such as: Pick someone up if they fall down, groping another person is not right, and if someone is trying to get out but can’t try to help them.  Someone needs to set a standard for civility!