[lbo-talk] tone etc.

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Doug:
> I appreciate this, and I have to say I'm torn about a response. I
> don't like it that a rough tone keeps people from posting, but on the
> other hand, I think political discourse in the U.S. often suffers
> from an excessive politeness. So I do try to regulate the tone here,

I think to the contrary - the amount of invective in the US political
discourse, especially on the net is intolerably high.  Most of it is the
name calling of the lowest possible order even in the world of insults
and sets the US males well below the international "standard" (if there
is such a thing).  I once inadvertently participated in an exchange
between Indians and Pakistanis - the level of insults was quite high,
but there were few personal invectives of the "fuck you" variety - most
of it was making fun of each other customs and religion. 

By comparison, the exchanges on this list are for the most part civil
and that is, imho, one of the main attractions of this list (the other
one is the level of participant's knowledge).  So I am with that list
member who complained about the level of invective.

Wojtek