Just what the thread (and the topic) needs, another ad hominem slam that contributes nothing to the Forum.
My turn: You're ugly and your Mommy dresses you funny
In real life, there are practical controls in relation to those who baselessly declare every opposing point of view to be racist, homophobic, etc. It isn't tolerated. Such persons find themselves excluded from social political discussions, and perhaps excluded from social interactions altogether. If such people crave social interaction, they have to moderate their behaviour in order to be allowed by others to engage.
There are no such controls here on the internet. Thus, the internet has become the refuge of those who cannot or will not moderate their behaviour to be respectful to others, and do not engage in discussions to both speak
and listen. On the internet, if you don't use your ignore button, you have no tools to moderate this anti-social behaviour. If you do use your ignore button, such people will just move on to other persons to offend.
Calling someone's views racist is tantamount to calling them a racist. Ironically, a real racist wouldn't care about being characterized that way. However, the vast majority of people take such slurs, meted out so casually, to be offensive personal insults. It's not too surprising that they are met with responding insults (stupid, f'd up, loser, etc.) As uncivil as it is, often the responding insult is more deserved than the one which set off the exchange.
Sports referees are always getting this wrong. They always seem to focus blame on the retaliation, rather than on the person who initiated the problem. Likewise, often parents get it wrong by punishing both children who are engaging in this kind of behaviour, even though one child clearly initiated the problem. The way to get it right is identify who started it and deal with them in a timely way.
You and I both know who this always is here at TERB.
Incivility certainly doesn't excuse more incivility, but neither does civility cure incivility.
If we are policing our own community, then we should be addressing the initiators of insulting exchanges at the point they commence. If we are not, then what you have said does not improve the standard of discourse either.
