In These Divided Times, Is Civility Under Siege?; NPR, March 12, 2019

Leila Fadel, NPR;

In These Divided Times, Is Civility Under Siege?

"The calls for civility can feel like an effort to stifle people's outrage over injustice or hate, because civility can be a tool to build or a weapon to silence.

"To what purpose is civility going to be used? Is it going to be more inclusive?" Itagaki asks. "Is it going to mean that you're bringing more people's voices into the political debates, or are you using civility as a way to go back to the old hierarchies and the status quo since the founding of the American republic, where you only had white male propertied free landowners who were able to vote?"

So for some, now is a time to take a step back and be civil to each other. For others, it's imperative to be uncivil in a way that has led to social justice in the past."

Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents; The Christian Science Monitor, July 2, 2018

E'oin O'Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor; Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents

"The causes for the gender gap are varied and complex, but much of it can be explained by women’s underrepresentation in patent-intensive jobs, particularly engineering. Research shows women make up roughly 20 percent of graduates from engineering schools, but hold less than 15 percent of engineering jobs. Female engineering grads are not entering the field at the same rate as their male counterparts, and they are leaving in far greater numbers.

“It’s the climate,” says Nadya Fouad, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “The organizational environment is very unforgiving.”

Professor Fouad, who spent three years surveying women with engineering degrees about their career choices, cites inflexible schedules, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and incivility toward women. “It’s not the women’s fault,” she says, noting that she found no difference in levels of confidence in those who stayed and those who left.

Other barriers women face are an absence of supportive social networks and implicit bias on the part of venture capitalists."

"Ripple Effect"; Bizarro, Go Comics, June 19, 2017

Dan Piraro, Bizarro, Go Comics; "Ripple Effect"

Rude Doctors, Rude Nurses, Rude Patients; New York Times, April 10, 2017

Perri Klass, New York Times; 

Rude Doctors, Rude Nurses, Rude Patients

"Just how much rudeness is there in the hospital, and who bears the brunt of it?

A few weeks ago I wrote about a study that looked at what happens to medical teams when parents are rude to doctors. In these studies of simulated patient emergencies, doctors and nurses working in the neonatal intensive care unit were less effective in teamwork and communication, and in their diagnostic and technical skills, after an actor, playing a parent, made a rude remark about the quality of the hospital."

"To Boldly Go"; robrogers.com, 9/9/16

Rob Rogers, robrogers.com; "To Boldly Go"

Trump calling Hillary Clinton a bigot is the tactic of a 5-year-old; Los Angeles Times, 8/26/16

David Horsey, Los Angeles Times; Trump calling Hillary Clinton a bigot is the tactic of a 5-year-old:

"Even people who oppose Clinton and loathe her political views — maybe even those who believe that she is corrupt and think she should be “locked up” — would have a hard time agreeing that she is a bigot. Perhaps Trump does not know what the word actually means. Given his record and the company he keeps, he should.

Back in the early 1970s, around the same time a young Clinton was going undercover in Alabama to expose discrimination against black children in segregated academies, a young Trump and his father were sued by the Nixon Justice Department for blatant discrimination against blacks in Trump-owned rental housing. In a CNN interview Thursday, Trump misrepresented the nature of that suit and how it was settled. He claimed that the resolution of the case proved there had been no wrongdoing. The record, however, shows that the Trumps were required to take remedial actions and were later sued again when they failed to follow through."

"Effective Tweeting"; Bizarro, 8/9/16

Dan Piraro, Bizarro:

"Effective Tweeting"

"I'm In"; Doonesbury, 7/31/16

Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury:

"I'm In"

Trump’s ‘Pocahontas’ attack leaves fellow Republicans squirming (again); Washington Post, 6/10/16

Matea Gold, Karoun Demirjian and Mike DeBonis, Washington Post; Trump’s ‘Pocahontas’ attack leaves fellow Republicans squirming (again):

"The “Pocahontas” line spurred chatter at former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s ideas summit Friday in Park City, Utah, where some attendees said they were aghast at Trump’s many race-based lines of attack.

Stuart Stevens — the chief strategist on Romney’s 2012 presidential bid, who, like Romney, has vowed not to vote for Trump — said the candidate’s use of “Pocahontas” to attack Warren was both racist and inappropriate.

“If you said this in a sixth-grade class, the teacher would tell you, ‘Don’t say this,’ ” Stevens said.

“This is a sick guy, and Americans are not longing for a president who’s going to go out and use ethnic slurs against people,” he said. “It’s amusing in the same way telling dirty jokes around a frat house can get laughs, but most people grow out of that. It’s childish.”"

Doonesbury; GoComics.com, 4/17/16

Garry Trudeau, GoComics.com; Doonesbury

No, Not Trump, Not Ever; New York Times, 3/18/16

David Brooks, New York Times; No, Not Trump, Not Ever:

"Donald Trump is an affront to basic standards of honesty, virtue and citizenship. He pollutes the atmosphere in which our children are raised. He has already shredded the unspoken rules of political civility that make conversation possible. In his savage regime, public life is just a dog-eat-dog war of all against all.

As the founders would have understood, he is a threat to the long and glorious experiment of American self-government. He is precisely the kind of scapegoating, promise-making, fear-driving and deceiving demagogue they feared.

Trump’s supporters deserve respect. They are left out of this economy. But Trump himself? No, not Trump, not ever."

All the people Donald Trump insulted in 2015; Washington Post, 12/30/15

Gillian Brockell, Thomas LeGro, Julio Negron, Washington Post; All the people Donald Trump insulted in 2015:

"Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has publicly insulted at least 68 people or groups in 2015, many of them multiple times. Here is a comprehensive list."

Web Trolls Winning as Incivility Increases; New York Times, 8/14/14

Farhad Manjoo, New York Times; Web Trolls Winning as Incivility Increases:

"But Dr. Phillips, of Humboldt State, pointed out that many efforts to curb trolling ran into a larger problem: “To what extent do you want to make it harder for people to express themselves on the Internet?” she asked.

“This is not the good-faith exchange of ideas,” she said. “It’s just people being nasty, and if anything, it might encourage marginalized groups to not speak up.” She added, “On the other hand, by silencing that valve, there’s a lot of other stuff that is important culturally that might also be minimized.”

If there’s one thing the history of the Internet has taught us, it’s that trolls will be difficult to contain because they really reflect base human society in all its ugliness. Trolls find a way.

“It’s not a question of whether or not we’re winning the war on trolling, but whether we’re winning the war on misogyny, or racism, and ableism and all this other stuff,” Dr. Phillips said. “Trolling is just a symptom of those bigger problems.”"

Incivility Can Have Costs Beyond Hurt Feelings; New York Times, 11/20/10

Alina Tugend, New York Times; Incivility Can Have Costs Beyond Hurt Feelings:

"“To fail to be civil to someone — to treat them harshly, rudely or condescendingly — is not only to be guilty of bad manners,” he wrote in a 2006 article, “The Value of Civility?” for the journal Urban Studies. “It also, and more ominously, signals a disdain or contempt for them as moral beings. Treating someone rudely, brusquely or condescendingly says loudly and clearly that you do not regard her as your equal.”

Or to use an example Professor Forni offered: when a mother corrects her son for chewing with his mouth open, and tells him people don’t like looking at half-chewed food, “she has given him a rule of table manners, but also a fundamental notion of all ethical principles — actions have consequences for others. Good manners are the training wheels of altruism.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/your-money/20shortcuts.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=business&src=me