Steem Pope Short Sermon: Be Civil!
Really, the title says it all. Do I need to elaborate?
Welcome to the internet, where other people seem to be just user names and avatars. There is a massive temptation to set aside the basic rules for civil discourse thanks to this cushion of anonymity. People call names, issue empty threats, and generally act like angry toddlers with a more comprehensive repertoire of vulgar language.
While there is a time and place for such language, this platform probably isn't it. As such, I have three simple suggestions:
Don't do that sort of thing. You're better than that.
Downvote those who do. That's one of the reasons the button is there.
Build a better vocabulary to express yourself more eloquently and thus raise the bar for public discourse.
As outdoors columnist Patrick F. McManus wrote, certain words are best reserved for when one is being charged by an angry rhinoceros, and use outside that context only creates confusion. Step away from the keyboard, read a good book, and relax instead when you feel the urge to vomit forth a juvenile stream of invective.
The English language is very rich in words that can be used to describe a person/situation far better than invective.
With the advantage of being heard because it is unusual.
Indeed. One of the things I detest about much of the "young adult" literature in the library is the reliance on foul language. I don't like the calls to ban such books, but I do think the authors could often take the opportunity to set an example alongside their efforts to be "relevant." Good authors have an almost magical way with words, and reading something sublimely well-written is a delight too few get to experience.
a quick suggestion would be Rudyard Kipling, even the soldiers stories, zane grey and his cowboy stories, Earle Stanley Gardiner for a few mysteries, even H G Wells and George Orwell for a few.
We have one of the James Fenimore Cooper novels inexplicably catalogued as "YA," too. No one seems to read it though.
Suggest that they are not old enough to read it, it will never be home, they wont actually read it, just tell their friends how good it is, and that they were old enough after all. (A bit like the Emperors new clothes)