Over a decade ago, I was always very proud when shopkeepers et al would compliment me on the politeness and manners of my daughters. But I have to ask are good manners a redundant concept these days, any disagreement, it seems is the instant trigger for obscenities and vile online comments using offensive language. The expression ‘agree to disagree’ seems redolent of a distant kinder era.
Universal access to social media provides an all to easy means for a great many people to launch into a tirade of vile filth and downright nastiness on Facebook and Twitter. In a very short space of time, many people have become unable to contemplate that someone might hold different views to their own and have the right to do so.