[falcor84]

I'm really sad about this. I'm ok with the use of clear and even fully colloquial language by officials, but find myself mourning this total loss of decorum. I grew up believing that our officials should strive to be role models. I feel that by shirking this expectation, the current administration is eroding a central pillar of government as a concept.

[dragonwriter]

> I grew up believing that our officials should strive to be role models.

They are striving to be role models, and they are role models for their followers, and this is clearly visible in changea in social interactions...

[indymike]

> I grew up believing that our officials should strive to be role models.

This is what we tell our children until they get old enough to process the adult world. Reality is... "it's complicated, ____ (son/daughter name here)." Our leaders (at least in the US) haven't been real role models for probably centuries... reality is the whole "virtuous king" thing has been aspirational since the ancient Greeks.

[falcor84]

> Our leaders (at least in the US) haven't been real role models for probably centuries...

Even when I disagreed with some of what he did (and didn't do), I absolutely can't recall a single time that I didn't admire the manner in which Obama spoke and behaved.

[Tostino]

I always rolled my eyes a bit about the decorum calls when anybody would get a little rowdy. I don't know, I seem to find a little bit of profanity and pointed name calling an entirely different thing than an all out assault on truth and reason.

[tw04]

The point of decorum is is that a devolution of language tends to result in an escalation of aggression which frequently ends in physical violence.

You generally don’t hear someone screaming “with all due respect I must disagree” before shooting someone.

[anyonecancode]

Does make me wonder about the 18th and early 19th C, where the written language was very polite and formal but people regularly had duels and killed each other. But perhaps spoken language at the time was far less polite? What did Hamilton and Burr shout at each other in Weehawken, I wonder.

[fc417fc802]

A formal duel following a set of rules is quite different than violently assaulting someone in a fit of rage.