I like the distinction but I wont support the choice of names for a second. You’ve said that you’re not making a value judgement, but in action, you are imposing one. You can’t use that word.
I think a better word for the “coercive” end of the continuum is “paternal”. This has some of the negative connotation, but only in the right ways, sometimes paternalism is obnoxious, but we need to learn that there are also times when paternalism is appropriate.
(A lot of people think coercion is inherently bad in all situations, and they’re right. A lot of people also think paternalism is inherenly bad in all situations, but they’re wrong.)
A teacher should always be paternal. We should be as uncomfortable with that as we are uncomfortable with the idea of schools. A little bit uncomfortable. Not too much.
The other end of the continuum seems harder to name, but coining the word “unpaternal” can’t do any harm. “Navigable” maybe.
I observe that the distinction seems to be mostly about how well the author understands what the reader needs to read. If the author understands much better than the reader, the civically appropriate format will always be paternalistic. The unit of media unpaternalism seems to be consumption-decisions per second.
I like the distinction but I wont support the choice of names for a second. You’ve said that you’re not making a value judgement, but in action, you are imposing one. You can’t use that word.
I think a better word for the “coercive” end of the continuum is “paternal”. This has some of the negative connotation, but only in the right ways, sometimes paternalism is obnoxious, but we need to learn that there are also times when paternalism is appropriate.
(A lot of people think coercion is inherently bad in all situations, and they’re right. A lot of people also think paternalism is inherenly bad in all situations, but they’re wrong.)
A teacher should always be paternal. We should be as uncomfortable with that as we are uncomfortable with the idea of schools. A little bit uncomfortable. Not too much.
The other end of the continuum seems harder to name, but coining the word “unpaternal” can’t do any harm. “Navigable” maybe.
I observe that the distinction seems to be mostly about how well the author understands what the reader needs to read. If the author understands much better than the reader, the civically appropriate format will always be paternalistic. The unit of media unpaternalism seems to be consumption-decisions per second.
I like your suggestion well enough that I might edit the post. (I’ll let it sit a bit to see whether I change my mind.)