Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen far many more examples of astonishing impudence than we really needed.

A lawmaker heckling the president during a formal address to Congress. A professional tennis player cursing and threatening a line judge. A musician disrupting an awards acceptance speech to protest the outcome.

All of these instances have grabbed much more attention and many more headlines than they really deserved, but they do appear at first glance to be symptomatic of a dismaying loss of civility in public discourse. These are but the most visible recent examples.

Our popular culture is filled with it. Reality television is seemingly a competition of infantile self-preoccupation. The common chords of popular music are disrespect, be it in the braggadocio of hip-hop or the bullheadedness of country. On the internet, snark trumps insight every day of the week.

Most disturbingly, bad manners have become the currency in which the media trades, specifically cable news stations. Facts and issues now take a backseat to yelling and insults. What gets said seems to matter very little, compared to how loudly and how crassly it is said.

This is particularly unfortunate when one realizes that there are children and even some adults who model their personal behavior on those they see on television. They see the outlandish antics of Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews result in large paychecks, the adoration of fans and even a misguided air of authority. What is to prevent them from imitating them?

If anything good can come from these recent episodes of gross behavior, perhaps our culture will learn the lesson that, yes, speech is free in our country, but rudeness can be very costly. Rep. Joe Wilson, Serena Williams and Kanye West might each have had serious opinions to express, but their points were lost when they voiced them a little loudly, a little crassly and at inappropriate times.

It really does not matter what you’re saying if you say it with rudeness. And if you are rude, what you say doesn’t really matter.