Professor Keith Bybee, the Paul E. and Hon. Joanne F. Alper ’72 Judiciary Studies Professor, spoke with WUSF/NPR on the state of civility one year into the Trump presidency.
Bybee, author of How Civility Works, discussed the history of civility in society, the ways norms of civility were broken throughout American history, and the impact of the current climate on civility across the political spectrum.
“There is some sense that if they go low and you don’t go high, then you become reduced to the level of the person you are disagreeing with,” said Bybee. “I would suggest something different, which is to focus on the real stakes of what are the boundaries of polite society, who gets the benefit of decent treatment and behavior in our society, who is owed basic respect. If we focus on that as the goal, perhaps it will make it less imperative that we engage in tit-for-tat or f-bomb-for-f-bomb.”