Reading Responses on Various Texts

Jose Arroyo

Professor Werry

RWS 200 M & W 3:30-4:45

25 Monday 2015

Reading Responses to Various Texts

            Throughout these various texts the main topic among them is how “public civility” is no longer present in online forums or on comments on various blogs posts. The reason for that is because some websites do not monitor their comments or do not try anything to stop the harassment or “uncivil” acts people commit on these websites. In this reading response I will go into how four articles define the problem, state the causes of the problem, and finally possible solutions for fixing the problem.

            First, I would like to talk about the Atlantic article that is called “, Is There Anything to Do About Civility,” by James Fallows. In his article he defines the problem as how violence never persuades another person to see the world how another person sees the world and in fact it does the opposite; it makes the other person stay stagnant in their ways and not pay attention to what the aggressor is saying. He also states how an actual conversation can only happen through dialog, civility, and mutuality. He maps out how he lives his life by his “three rules of civility” which he tries to enforce onto his audience to encourage them to live by them to enable “actual conversations.” The problem in this article is how many people try to end arguments by trying to be too negative and using hate speech which destroys the overall attempt to try and create a public communication ground. The solution to this problem to Fallow is that by simply following the 9 points he maps out for his readers enables them to try and change their actions.

            In Lomas “#Gamergate Shows Tech needs far better Algorithms,” she states how big corporations like “Google” and “Twitter” have allowed unwanted and harsh comments that have led to the ruin of comment section. This failure to monitor this allows gamers to surf the web and disregard females in ways that are indescribable as well as leaving unprecedented comments. Also by the actions of Eric Schmidt  as he “shrugged off finding a solution” to algorithms reveals how big industries such as Google rely on controversial material to provide “clicks” that provide their website to get as many views as they need. They rely on material like this to enable more people to converse about such topics. She states how the problem can be fixed by making algorithms less “dumb” and more properly said to evade all this hate speech.

            In Pinto’s article he reveals how “Gamergate” is such a bad thing that needs to be seriously attended to. He states how gamers feel how their movement is trying to higher the ethics of journalism but in reality they are using hate, vulgar, and crude ways to get their point across. He reveals actual women who have been harassed by gamergate and how their actions reveal the cruelty and severity of the comments. But the actual problem is not with the gamers but more with the state for allowing and enabling them to continue to commit these harsh acts. As he states “ States also have their share of responsibility,” because they are the ones who have the ability to stop this criminal activity because they are proposing horrific things. The solution to this problem is that if states accept more blame and try to band these acts but in the end there is “nothing that the victims can do.”

            From Thompson’s excerpt from his book he states how “anonymity” is a bad thing for public speech because it enables the most civil people to say things that they would of not said if their name was attached to the post or to their words. He also illustrates how the Internet enabled us to have a “new stage” on doing this hate speech. He inserts an example of an Atlantic article made by this man named Ta-Nahesi Coates who monitors his comments and removes the vulgar and disrespectful ones to create a peaceful and intellectual speaking ground. By doing that people come to the senses that kind of speech is not wanted inside their speaking ground and actually creates a better environment for commenters who are actually trying to communicate with the writer. Thompson’s solution is that if every company or person can remove hate speech from their websites it will create a better way for public civility and allow real discussions to take place inside society.