Right-wing calls for “civility” focus entirely on tone and not on content. They* should be able to say the most hateful, obnoxious, offensive things, free from criticism, opporobrium, or protest; everyone must sit listen. In fact, it is uncivil to accurately describe or repeat–even without comment-what they say. Their only obligation is that they say it with a smile and a nice tone.
[*] Although not lefties, liberals, and university professors.
In other words:
Civil: (Said in a calm tone on a stage by a well-dressed, well-spoken white man): Trans people should be stoned. Homeless people should be given lethal injections. The Civil Rights Act of 1964–and presumably racial and gender equality in the workplace, education and public accommodations–was a mistake. Joe Biden should be executed for the harm he has done to America. Democrats are vermin. We must stop Black and Brown immigrants from replacing the white people who make America great. We are keeping a list of professors who say things we do not like and we will use that list to harass them and urge universities to fire them.
Uncivil: Fuck you and your bigoted ideas. I do not want to sit and listen to what you have to say. Your policies, if implemented, suck and would create a bad society. So fuck them.
Kevin Kruse argues that this echoes the birth of White Citizens Councils following Brown, which “likewise hid ugly actions behind a mask of civility.” Here is the close of the piece, which captures the history and the present moment:
Their rule of thumb seems to be that, as long as the tone is cheerful, there’s no need to examine the ugliness of the words. As long as the speaker is smiling, there’s no need to hear what they say.
But a true reckoning with the life and legacy of any political activist – no matter where they stood on the spectrum – has to address the substance of their words and deeds, and not just their style. Focus on exactly what they said, not how nicely they said it.
The Citizens Councils were not as bloodthirsty as the Klan, but they used economic pressure to harass people who said the wrong things and often to get them blacklisted or even fired. They were more polite about it, of course, but that’s a distinction that didn’t matter to their victims.
And it shouldn’t matter to us. Not then, not now.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on September 14, 2025 at 06:02 PM