Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that incivility and misrepresentation of facts in debate are to be deplored, but it is almost impossible to police them without injustice. This is especially the case with misrepresentation, because unless the speaker gives himself away there is no way of proving that he was being dishonest.

Furthermore, said Mill, those who police discussions for incivility or misrepresentation tend to be people in power, which means that marginal opinions will suffer much more than fashionable ones. Worst of all is when those who do not take the fashionable line are labelled as bad and hate-filled people, since no one will stand up for them.

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