Tim Blair links to an article by John Hawkins about how online stuff has changed the way things are done:
Well, you have individuals from all over the world who can talk anonymously to people with whom they have no personal connection, and they can say absolutely anything without fear of being punched in the nose. Put another way, the Internet takes away all the factors that keep people from saying the rude things that they may be thinking, but wouldn’t blurt out if they were face to face with another human being. On a more sinister note, the Internet allows misfits, sexual deviants, and sociopaths to form communities outside the mainstream where they can reinforce each others’ values.
I once mentioned that everyone has a crazy uncle who has odd ideas. Link them by the net and you have not an Army of Davids but an army of crazy uncles.
Blair has a suggestion:
It’s generally best when writing online – anonymously or otherwise – to observe the “would I say that if the person I was saying it about were right in front of me?” rule.
That wouldn’t make any difference at all if it was my brother who was talking. He thinks “tacit” is what you use to put up things on a bulletin board.
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