Agenda Denial Was: tone policing

[Phillip Hallam-Baker <[e-mail]>]

It might be more helpful to consider Keith's original point in terms of
agenda denial which is a tactic that is used to avoid discussion of topics
that a party knows they will lose if they get to the facts.

Tone policing is an agenda denial strategy. But so is jamming a
conversation with irrelevant and repetitive statements.

Tone policing is the specific strategy of saying that because something was
raised in the wrong way, it cannot ever be raised. So the canonical version
would be a tinpot dictatorship that suspends parliament with the intention
of provoking a riot it will use as pretext for seizing power.

Tone policing not exactly unknown in IETF but the strategy of poisoning a
debate by being disruptive is much more common.