Time for a good dose of civility

KAMLOOPS — The Armchair Mayor and I were talking the other day about the good and bad of social media. We are both totally amazed at the lack of civility shown by people on Twitter, Facebook and web sites by people who 1) have no concept of issues 2) have no solution to offer, just complaints, and 3) the brutal way they attack people they don’t agree with.

 I am personally shocked by the tone of emails, tweets and posts that occur every day. On a news site, we expect people who have personal bias to express their opinions. That’s what those sites are for- to initiate discussion and try to foster varying opinions. But I try to eliminate those who go into “attack” mode and personally berate people whom they don’t agree with. Personal attacks that are made without any knowledge of the person being attacked. A little heated discussion is great, but when it becomes personal, that’s just another case of cyberbullying. And it has to stop. Social media has been hurt by the actions of the President of the United States, who has taken cyberbullying to a whole new level. But it was heading in that direction long before The Donald.  

So what’s the answer? Ban these people? They’ll just use a new identity. Can we charge them with bullying? Perhaps, but it’s a big job. This is an educational process that needs to be expanded and developed over time, and reinforced again and again.

Civility in our society is rapidly being replaced by some kind of “rage” mentality that is becoming more and more pervasive. It is evident in our attacks on people of other faiths, of other countries, on indigenous people, of just about anyone who doesn’t share the attacker’s personal opinion.

The last couple of days, a couple of City Councillors have tried to get some discussion going on snow removal in the city. A lot of people, tired in windrows, slippery streets and too much white stuff, refuse to listen to any kind of reason. They call for an inquiry, thinking we’re wasting taxpayers’ dollars, that money is being squandered, and worse. Some of the comments are just ranting, most are not made with any logical solution, people just want to find someone to vent to. So they troll these web sites and take it out on people who are trying to help them. Monitoring our own sites, it’s amazing how many people have no information about how society works. It doesn’t work to their satisfaction, so someone’s a crook, or not doing their job.

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I like discussion, but personal attacks have no place on these sites, and we need to start to realize that these cyberattacks should not go unpunished. Taking a more civil approach is certainly a goal we should all work toward when we make comments, whether they are web- based or face to face. Whatever happened to common decency? You’d never know it existed by looking at social media posts today.