Welcome to our second lesson in civility. After taking advice from Thumper yesterday, today we take in some wisdom from the Deseret News.
Readers wanting to comment at the bottom of Internet news articles are instructed to avoid being "abusive, offensive, off-topic, or misrepresentative."
So, today we study "abusive."
Abusive, my Webster's New World Dictionary tells me, is "course and insulting in language; scurrilous; harshly scolding."
So, if we would be civil, we should consider whether what we say will make someone feel insulted. We should consider whether it will make them feel they are being scolded. More to the point, are we trying to insult them? Are we trying to harshly scold them?
If so, we are not being completely civil.
If we find something wrong with another person, we should try to express it without insulting them and without giving our words a serious scolding effect. Saying something is wrong without insulting and severely scolding will be an art, but in the name of being civil, we will want to make it our aim.
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