Twitter, Facebook and Internet websites offering and soliciting reader comments -- including newspaper web pages -- have given everyone a national and global megaphone but not the wisdom to use with these new-fangled bullhorns.
There's one example this week before the U.S. Supreme Court of Anthony Elonis who claimed he was just kidding and exercising free speech when he posted a series of graphically violent rap lyrics on Facebook about killing his estranged wife, shooting up a kindergarten class and attacking an FBI agent. A federal jury convicted him of violating a federal law that makes it a crime to threaten another person.
There's the example of Elizabeth Lauten, the aide of Tennessee Republican Rep. Steven Fincher, who penned a widely-disseminated Facebook post criticizing President Barack Obama's teenaged daughters who stood with their father as he pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys. "Rise to the occasion," she wrote. "Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar."
Lauten later deleted the post and wrote an apology on Facebook, saying she now sees "more clearly just how hurtful my words were." She also resigned.
On our own web pages, commenters and trolls are all too happy to engage with us and each other in anonymous name calling. Here's a one nicer-than-normal recent post from an anonymous commenter: "You all need to get fitted for your sheet and hood. Is blue ok? ... I am starting to think that like Islam, liberalism is some sort of mental illness."
Maybe this new chatty megaphone is the reverse of secret hate and inaccountability. But maybe, too, it's too much transparency. It's certainly too much sharing. And way too much equal opportunity to be hateful and stupid.
And no, editorials are not anonymous. Check the name, email and phone number at the top left-hand corner of the page.
But where do all these bully bullhorns lead us? Our news is filled with partisan conflict and questions. Our televisions are filled with shows -- fictional and nonfictional -- about conflict and hate. Our radio talk show hosts are partisan and race baiters supreme. And the zillions of Facebook and Twitter and website insults just rachet it all up.
It's little wonder that our Congress can't have civil conversations. The big question is whether our leaders are our role models or whether their younger, digital-savvy staffers are teaching the old dogs new cyber-bully tricks. Consider these recent posts about Ferguson aggregated by LegiStorm, a "fiercely non-partisan" congressional information data collector, founded to bring, you guessed it, "greater transparency" to the workings of Capitol Hill:
"Protestors [sic] are blocking bridges as payback for #Ferguson. You know, the same thing liberals wanted Chris Christie imprisoned for." -- Donny Ferguson, press secretary for Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), posted Nov. 25 at 9:47 p.m.
Jerry Ruskowski, systems administrator and assistant operations manager for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Matt Stoller, senior policy adviser for Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), both tweeted photos apparently from the scene of the D.C. protest. "And now it's time for the protest class picture. #Ferguson" Stoller captioned a photo as rows of protesters lined a stairway. Nov. 25 at 9:14 p.m.
"GOV 101 - DA 101 - Why didn't anyone say 'Men, announcing the findings from the grand jury at 8 pm' is a bad idea? #Ferguson" Nov. 25 at 10:16 a.m. -- Michael Detwiler, field representative for Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.):
"Put every idiot in Ferguson in jail tonight. This behavior is absolutely unacceptable. Don't care how mad you are- worst way to make a point" -- Elizabeth Lauten, again -- the now-resigned communications director for Tennessee Rep. Stephen Fincher, posted Nov. 25 at 1:33 a.m.
To borrow a line from Joan Baez, "Don't ask me what my sign is. Instant intimacy runs cheap." Perhaps we might substitute: Don't ask what the hashtag is. Instant sarcasm runs cheap.
But at times, cooler and more thoughtful heads -- and posts -- do prevail.
Alyssa Farah, communications director for Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., sent out this wise missive to the #Ferguson tag on Nov. 24 at 10:08 p.m.: "It may be time to step away from your keyboard and remember that regardless of tonight's decision, an 18-year-old kid is dead."
Megaphones are not conducive to civil discussion among people who seek to make change -- at least not when the change intended is a better world.