Incivility Defined

A recent article in The Washington Post is focused on ‘incivility”.  Incivility appears in bullying, anger, blaming, dishonesty, greed, negativity, and profanity. These are all breeding grounds for hate speech.

Research done by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research shows that these are socially contagious.  The more you are exposed to or are part of these things, the more you will be infected by them and perform them yourself.  Think about it.  When you hear hate speech, how often is it in an environment that is typical of these behaviors?  The research asserts that 75% of Americans surveyed  in December of 2016, say that politicians are the major cause of incivility in our nation.  In addition, it points out that such behavior is most frequently used by those who are not in power.

In a new book by Porath and Pearson, they point out uncivil behavior costs companies $14,000 per employee each year.  So, as we think about hate speech and it’s existence, we must realize that much of it is nurtured in these environments and as part of these behaviors.  A good example of how to handle such behavior has been given by David Hogg, the Parkland student who responded to a Fox TV commentator after she used her bully pulpit of TV to accuse David Hogg of "whining."

He simply said, “bullying is bullying."  It’s a good idea to call out hate speech whenever, wherever, by whomever, and in whatever venue it appears.

Hate speech is incivility in real time.