Thomas Jefferson wrote of the University of Virginia, "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
If online responses to articles, editorials, columns and letters in The Cavalier Daily are an accurate indication of the kind of reason doing battle at the University, Jefferson would be disappointed. He probably would not be surprised - a politician and a lawyer, Jefferson saw and did worse that what is in some of these online arguments - but he would be disappointed.
Reason is an acceptable and effective weapon against error. Name calling and character assassination can be effective, but they should not be acceptable. They get in the way of any real attempt to get at truth or a reasonable understanding of competing ideas.
Last week, I wrote a critical column about an editorial published in The Cavalier Daily. Some people criticized my criticism. People who agreed with me attacked the attackers.
"Looks like the Managing Board is posting comments anonymously from their cell phones now," someone posted. The poster did more than accuse the Managing Board - with no evidence of which I am aware - of saying unpleasant things from behind a virtual mask. He - at least, the poster's online name is masculine - worked in another insult of the Managing Board and spread it much wider.
"You can tell by their inability to discuss the actual topics, and engage in character assassination instead," he wrote. "This is standard fare for the far left these days."
The irony of his engaging in character assassination while decrying those who engage in character assassination apparently escaped his notice.
In response to another comment about another editorial, the same person wrote, "At this point, I think it's possible that they are writing editorials while flying on red bull and vodka, xanax, and aderall."
That was not a quip in a longer, more thoughtful posting. That was the post. In addition to failing to capitalize some brand names, it failed to say anything about the editorial itself or the issues it discussed.
It did, however, open the poster to an ad hominem attack concerning his consumption of an ancient and popular drug.
". . . [W]asn't it mentioned on another post that you recently got a DUI?" wrote an attacker who has taken the name of the man who played Batman on television as a nom de web. "Care to explain how it is that now you're condemning writing under the influence?"
It is unclear if that is meant to be a defense of writing under the influence, but the same poster carried the same theme to other discussions, reminding readers that the anti-Cavalier Daily poster ". . . [A]pparently recently got a DUI. Drug abuse, anyone? Endangering others, anyone?"
Apparently?
Sometimes attacking a writer's character is apparently too much work. That is when some commenters turn to what a pre-George Carlin generation might have considered shocking language - only they clean it up the way some newspapers used to, substituting asterisks for some letters, like this: "That's absolutely f**king Pathetic."
More creative use of language and more standardized use of capitalization might improve the argument, or at least convince more people to take it seriously.
A tag at the bottom of each online article declares, "The Cavalier Daily welcomes, and encourages, spirited debate about the topics posted on the website." Too many people seem to have a hard time keeping the debate focused on the topic. Refuting arguments, presenting evidence and occasionally acknowledging that folks with a different point of view might have a reasonable point can be taxing. It requires thought. It requires work.
In "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell wrote that the English language "becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."
In the 66 years since that was first published, things have not improved.
Tim Thornton is the ombudsman for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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