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By Eric Blauer
1. You don’t have to respond. (Especially to adversarial, rude, demeaning people. If you wrestle with pigs, you both end up smelling like dung.)
2. Don’t say it online if you wouldn’t say it to them face to face.
3. Speak up and defend those you care about, even if you don’t agree with them on everything. (Silence is often cowardice, you wouldn’t walk by someone getting beat up and just stare or take pictures. If you would you are not a friend.)
4. Online life is a circle of community, it’s the modern public square. (Your engagement or absence is an issue of influence and leadership.)
5. Remember you are dealing with people not just positions.
6. Avoid extremes.
(Keep in your lane, if you pull to the hard right or hard left, it probably means you’re out of alignment.)
7. Create a diverse conversational culture. (There’s wisdom in a multitude of counselors. If you only engage people who agree with you, you are not learning and growing.)
8. Use humor to defuse assumptions and loosen up constipated people or conversations. (Comments often come off terse, dismissive or demeaning by brevity. Be aware of tone and tension.)
9. Labels are for clarification, not demonizing. (Try not to pigeonhole people with labels to dismiss them. People are always more than one view on a issue.)
10. Dialogue and debate are healthy in a free society.
(People who troll, flame or shut down conversations are often reflecting their own fears, issues or immaturity.)
