 The French Prime Minister from 2005 to 2007, whose name I will not attempt, has a quote I find very apropos to the current situation. Between an uncontrolled escalation and passivity, there is a demanding road of responsibility that we must follow. I take that as the appropriate code of conduct on YouTube and on the internet in general if such a thing is possible. For this fragile world community to survive, we have to agree, at least implicitly, to a simple code of conduct. I would not advocate passivity, it's simply unachievable. Our differences are too great. We will argue, we will shout, and we will not get along. Our interests lie at cross purposes. Words will be exchanged, heated words, bigots and trolls can't be filtered out. It is the nature of the internet to bring together people, most of whom will hate each other. But just like the community of nations, we must weigh the consequences of escalation. Our criticisms and our actions must be reflective of the action and the actor we are responding to. Wars, flame wars, or real wars never have a happy conclusion for everyone involved. They necessitate permanent damage, or in the case of real world wars, loss of life. They leave scars on both sides that don't heal. It doesn't matter who is the aggressor, so long as the harm continues to be escalated on both sides. The only responsible party is one who can put aside the momentary pain of allowing their opponent the upper hand in the interest of not reaching the inevitable and irrevocable consequence of continued escalation. It will hurt, but less so than the inevitable consequence of two people refusing to back down. Take a moment when you are tempted to lash out at someone beyond a hate filled comment, a criticism, or a video response. Do not attempt to harm people in the real world, to go on the offensive to soothe your bruised ego. Personally, there is nothing on YouTube so valuable that I would allow it to harm even the first hair on the head of my children or my wife. There is nothing so harmful to me that I would attempt to jeopardize someone else's livelihood or personal safety. Better to leave YouTube forever if this is the inevitable consequence of open discussion and disagreement. The demanding road is disagreement without personal harm. The demanding road is allowing others to disagree with you, to be bigots, to hate you, to call you names, to make accusations, to say things you don't want to hear. The demanding road is to respond in kind, to defend your name through legitimate online mechanisms or simply to ignore it, to break the cycle of escalating harms. This does not preclude legitimate defense against real-world threats. If someone threatens your life, it is appropriate to contact real-world authorities and let them deal with the problem. However, this should never be used as retribution for perceived defenses in the virtual world. Blessed are the peacemakers, those who seek peace, who oppose escalation, who find a way to break through the cycle of an eye-for-eye retribution. They need not be passive, but they must walk the demanding road of responsibility. Our global community depends on it.