School Days/Golden Rule Days

 

Let me bring you up to date. There’s even more disingenuous campaigning going on right now and I want you to think about what it really means. I’m jumping in because I feel uniquely qualified to comment, by virtue of personal experience.

I’ve been seeing negative campaigning based on where candidates’ children go to school. 

Some years back I had a sudden and ongoing problem with people who claimed I didn’t have the right to express my own opinions on this blog because of where one of my children went to school. Eventually they went after both children. And my spouse.

What would you do? What would you think? 

Choices you make for your own children are personal, mostly because they concern the privacy of a minor. No one has the right to ask you to betray that child in order to justify family choices. 

Here’s the thing: this didn’t really have anything to do with where my kid went to school. It was solely because these folks didn’t like what I was writing and they were willing to use any tactic to discredit, embarrass, or frighten me. 

In response I wrote this: The Rules of the House, 10/24/2020. Some excerpts are below.

In the disclaimer posted on my blog are the following words:

I encourage discussion in the comments section but I have no patience for trolling, or really any kind of nastiness. 

Over the past year I have been moved, more than once, to remind commenters that they are welcome to disagree with the contents of my blog but that I will have zero tolerance for people who go after my family. Imagine needing to tell people that dragging someone’s family is out of bounds. 

It is stunning to me that Columbia/HoCo has people who feel so justified in their point of view that they believe absolutely no filter is necessary when engaging in online discourse. The results have been disastrous. I can’t control the whole world of local social media, of course. But I can set boundaries for my own small part of it.

Comments are welcome, but commenters should realize that for each blog there are rules of the house.

Going after my family is not an acceptable way to interact. It has nothing to do with the blog. It is, frankly, the last resort of people whose arguments are so thin that they cannot win on their own merit.

So I’m going to update the disclaimer. It will now read:

I encourage discussion in the comments section but I have no patience for trolling, or really any kind of nastiness. Warning: my family is off limits. Transgressors will be banned.

When I see candidates being targeted with the same tactics I feel obliged to respond. They are in a tougher position than I was. They can’t block or ban anyone, but they still can’t address the attack without violating their children’s right to privacy.

That’s why I’m jumping in. Let’s try paraphrasing to see if that helps.

Going after family in this way is not an acceptable way to campaign. It has nothing to do with a candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Here’s the biggie:

It is, frankly, the last resort of people whose arguments are so thin that they cannot win on their own merit.

When you go after someone’s minor children you are telling the whole world that you approve of going after the privacy of minor children. You are also revealing that your candidate isn’t strong enough to win on their own merit. If you don’t have enough examples of why your preferred candidate is the best then either 1. you should do more research or 2. your candidate isn’t worth supporting.

The Golden Rule I referenced in the title of this piece? I’m sure you’ve heard of it. 

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Village Green/Town² Comments