Civility Isn’t Surrender

National Review ^ | March 9, 2018 | David French

[C19fan]

America’s two great ideological tribes are in the midst of a similar conflict. It’s the battle over civility, and all too often reason, compassion, and grace are on the losing side. On the left, aggressive social-justice activists scorn engagement and dialogue as “respectability politics” and instead favor the shout-down, the boycott, and the online shame campaign.

On the right, online pugilists mock more mainstream or “establishment” conservatives as unwilling to do what it takes to win. They mock conservatives who refuse to make Trump-style attacks and decry Trump-style rhetoric as obsessed with “muh principles.” In the face of a ferocious Left, we just don’t have what it takes — or, as Milo Yiannopoulos said earlier this week in a long piece calling me “the most reliably frustrating person in conservative media,” we’re more prepared to “lose gracefully” than to “be seen as lacking in manners.”

[MeganC]

I refuse to be civil to people who refuse to be civil to me because I support the Constitution, President Trump, my country, my flag, my culture, my language, my history, my cuisine, and my .308

Be nice to me and I’ll be even nicer to you.

Be mean to me and I’ll be even meaner to you.

Them’s my rules.

[YogicCowboy]

Ah, yes: rubber knives at machine gun fights.

Well, controlled opposition, so that’s all they do.