In yesterday's posted video, Billy Graham and Woody Allen interact in a civil manner, listening to each other and interacting without rancor. Amy Wax, law professor at University of Pennsylvania law school, would like that.
She co-authored an article that shouldn't have triggered hate, but did. There were letters, statements, petitions "hurling slurs and epithets, name-calling, vilification, and mindless labeling," much of it coming from her own law school.
"There were demands that I be removed from the classroom and from academic committees. None of these demands even purported to address our arguments in any serious or systematic way."
How should disagreement be handled? "The proper response would be to engage in reasoned debate—to attempt to explain, using logic, evidence, facts, and substantive arguments, why those opinions are wrong." Without name-calling.
That would be civil discourse. That's what we need.
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