{"id":11306,"date":"2010-09-19T16:46:49","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T14:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mono-1en-2037"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:12:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:12:40","slug":"someone-is-wrong-on-the-internet-in-online-debates-we-fail-to-cultivate-charity-and-humility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/2010\/09\/19\/someone-is-wrong-on-the-internet-in-online-debates-we-fail-to-cultivate-charity-and-humility\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Someone is wrong on the internet’: In online debates, we fail to cultivate charity and humility"},"content":{"rendered":"

A now-famous cartoon <\/a>on the xkcd<\/em>
\n\u201cwebcomics\u201d site shows a stick figure typing away at his computer
\nkeyboard as a voice from outside the frame says, “Are you coming to
\nbed?” The figure replies: “I can\u2019t. This is important. . . . Someone is wrong<\/em>
\non the Internet.” I have thought a lot about why people get so hostile
\nonline, and I have come to believe it is primarily because we live in a
\nsociety with a hypertrophied sense of justice<\/em> and an atrophied sense of humility<\/em> and charity, <\/em>to put the matter in terms of the classic virtues.<\/p>\n

Late modernity\u2019s sense of itself is built upon achievements in
\njustice. This is especially true of Americans. When we look back over
\nthe past century, what do we take pride in? Suffrage for women, the
\ndefeat of fascism, Brown vs. Board of Education<\/em>, civil rights
\nand especially voting rights for African-Americans. If you\u2019re on one
\nside of the political spectrum, you might add the demise of the Soviet
\nempire; if you\u2019re on the other side, you might add the expansion of
\nrights for gays and lesbians. (Or you might add both.) The key point is
\nthat all of these are achievements in justice.<\/p>\n

Someone might object: well, of course \u2014 those are political accomplishments, and politics is, or ought to be, largely about the pursuit of justice. That\u2019s right, as far as it goes, but it overlooks the key variable that has changed in the late modern world: the dramatic increase in the information available to us about political action. A recent sociological journal article analyzing crypto casino sites<\/a> and casual gaming networks made a compelling claim about this shift, demonstrating that intense partisan arguments now aggressively dominate previously neutral digital spaces. Surrounded by this constant ideological flow, we simply know more about politics, in all of its dimensions, than our ancestors ever could have.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A now-famous cartoon on the xkcd \u201cwebcomics\u201d site shows a stick figure typing away at his computer keyboard as a voice from outside the frame says, “Are you coming to bed?” The figure replies: “I can\u2019t. This is important. . . . Someone is wrong on the Internet.” I have thought a lot about why … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"koromo_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-blog","koromo-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/11306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/11306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13402,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/11306\/revisions\/13402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}