In his latest column in The Forward and in other of his recent writings, David Klinghoffer has complained bitterly about the names and insults that have been hurled at him by what he terms as mostly “liberal Jews” because he dared to point out the influence Darwinism had on Hitler’s philosophy.
At the end of a post on Evolution News (www.evolutionnews.org), Klinghoffer asks, “Is there, in any case, something in the psychological profile of many a Darwin-partisan that leads such a person not simply to misunderstand or insult those who disagree with him but to purposefully misrepresent what we say?”
What David Klinghoffer is really talking about is the reality of the Internet age. The internet is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows people the opportunity to express opinions publicly without the limit that print publications inevitably impose. On the other hand, allowing people to express opinions openly and oftentimes anonymously can encourage abuse of that privilege. And expressing a dissenting or individual opinion on the Internet is about as public as you can get.
However, as anyone who has written on the Internet—even on their own personal blog—knows, when people disagree with your opinion, it can turn personal. In fact, in my experience, more often than not criticism raised on the Internet attacks the messenger more than the message and personal insults and attacks and deliberate misrepresentation are the means often used for this end.
Despite this danger, many people, myself included, feel that it is worth it, because the benefits inherent in writing for a large audience far outweigh the hazards. One grows a thick skin and learns to ignore those who have an ax to grind and are nasty as a result, remembering the old adage, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me."
However, although some writers have developed an immunity to name calling and unfair distortions of what they have written, the culture that permits derogatory and defaming language cannot be good for society. Decent people have always frowned on gossiping and defamation, because it is inhuman and cruel to hurt or delight in the pain of others.
The Torah states that, “You shall not go around as a gossipmonger amidst your people” (Leviticus 19:16). The Talmud (Arachin 15b) considers gossip and slander to be among the worst types of moral sin. In fact, the Talmud goes on to say that one who slanders another is considered to have murdered not one but three people. This is why in English, slander is often called “character assassination.” There always have been and always will be people who gossip and slander others—there is an entire industry of it known as the tabloid press. But most decent people do not read those rags.
With the Internet much of this has changed. Anyone now has free rein to attack and insult others with impunity and often anonymously. You only have to look at blogs and comments in feedback and chat forums to see that this phenomenon is rampant on the Internet, evidenc of a sadistic society in which no one can truly trust anyone. So, however hardened regular writers on the Internet have become to personal attacks and misrepresentation, for the sake of society as a whole this type of abuse should stop.
Internet providers and website owners should, in their own interests and those of the wider public, monitor the material that writers and users want to put on the Internet and screen out anything that is defamatory, slanderous or likely to cause profound offense. They too should feel duty bound to promote a society in which discourse does not descend into the gutter but is rather mutually fair, kind and respectful.