civility policing

This is a strategy in politics where people who object to a policy are first of all held to account for their bad behaviour and lack of courtesy.  Much is made of the fact that, whatever our opinions, we should all be nice to each other and polite at all times. By the time the tut-tutting is over, the attention of the world at large has been deflected from the real issue to the superficial discomfort caused by the protestors.  John Howard was very good at this. Not that we had this term back then. It has come up again in the discussion of Lidia Thorpe’s protest in parliament. There were many who agreed with her sentiments — they were, after all, not new. A smaller group had no problem with her message but did have a problem with how she delivered it.  And another smaller group say that we have to expect that activists will not conform if they are to shift the attitudes of society, and that civility policing is directed at them, not with a genuine concern for standards in political arguments but as a means of defusing protest.