[governance] Rudeness tectics (was Re: Reinstate the Vote)

[Karl Auerbach]

KovenRonald at aol.com wrote:

> The problem with proposals to "moderate" rudeness is that they are a 
> form of censorship.

I very much agree with you.  Speaking for myself, I do feel at times 
that many of the comments directed at me are intended not to facilitate 
discussion or engage on the actual issue under discussion, but, rather, 
to attempt to discredit me.  (Of course that is how I feel and not 
necessarily indicative of the actual intent of those who make those 
comments.)

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being really bad and 10 being really good, 
any proposal or institution for internet governance which fails to 
incorporate, at a fundamental level, processes for real and meaningful 
public participation and accountability to the public is a proposal that 
rank at level 1 (or below), i.e. very egregious.

By comparison, I'd rank the kind of occasional lapse of diplomatic 
courtesy and use of words that carry a hint of color to be pretty much 
of middling grade - not particularly good, but then again, neither 
particularly harmful.  As an example of this kind of middling thing I'd 
put those attempts to discourage me from discussing some of ICANN's ills 
on the grounds that I have been pointing out those still extant ills 
since 1998.

As for direct personal attacks - such as directly belittling a person's 
intelligence or capacity - I can't really say that I've seen much of 
that.  Rather, I tend to perceive situations in which the offense seems 
more the product of an unreasonably sensitive person or cultural 
differences about discourse (we Americans tend to accept harsh degrees 
of discourse more than do some others and thus we may more easily slip 
into usage that we consider innocent but that triggers other cultural 
expectations of greater courtesy) - the cure for the former is for 
people to grow slightly thicker skins, the cure for the latter is for 
those of us who tend to come from places where rough-and-tumble 
discourse is accepted to learn to tone ourselves down.  My own 
experience over the years tends to suggest that there could be a more 
sinister factor at work (and I hope I am simply engaging in raw 
speculation and that this is not in fact occurring here): intentionally 
feigned offense for the purpose of making the maker of the comment 
appear to be some sort of transgressor.

Thus on my scale of badness, we are discussing how to prevent future 
(and existing) bodies of internet governance from pursuing structural 
methods or courses of action that are really bad.

If along the way our level of discourse slips to less than some angelic 
degree of perfection, then, when comparing a real evil against a slight 
transgression, I'd let the slight, and hopefully innocently intended, 
transgression pass and remember that we are really addressing a far more 
significantly bad problem, the loss of institutions of internet 
governance that are clearly accountable to the community of internet users.

Getting back to the inner topic that triggered this side thread:

To my mind the idea that any institution of internet governance could be 
proposed, much less come into existence, that has no direct and clear 
method of process through which it is open, transparent, and most 
importantly, accountable, to the community of internet users is an idea 
that I find highly offensive.

Nearly as offensive to me is the suggestion that we internet users are 
so childlike that our interactions must be informed by and performed 
through mechanisms created by the body of internet governance, 
particularly when business interests are not required to express their 
interests via internet-governance-body operated playpens.

To me it is an easy balance - I will accept a few moments of rude 
behavior and attacks if in the larger scope it will help prevent the 
expansion of what I find to be serious and real dangers to just and 
accountable forms of internet governance.

		--karl--


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