Keller @ Large: Keep Your Rudeness To Yourself

BOSTON (CBS) - Today, we're talking about good manners. Remember them?

For those who don't, this was in part the quaint notion that it wasn't good form to blurt out every thought that came into your head, especially when it was rude, derogatory or otherwise inappropriate, that you should practice courtesy and restraint at all times as your contribution to a civilized society.

Roseanne Barr made a lot of money playing a character with bad manners, as do many others in her field and others, including politics. But when she combined her trademark crudeness and vulgarity with racism in a tweet last month about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, she blew up her lucrative career, a blunder she acknowledged in a podcast interview.

"I horribly regret that, are you kidding? I've lost everything and I regretted it before I lost everything. And I said to God i am willing to accept whatever consequences this brings because I know I've done wrong," she said.

Roseanne knows now, but will others benefit from her sorry example?

Comedians like Roseanne have always been granted an exception from social norms regarding manners. But that act doesn't sell in most other spheres of public life, or at least it didn't until social media and Donald Trump came along.

Now it seems everybody, from the President of the United States to random folks with a Twitter feed, feels like it's ok to ignore manners entirely. But it's not ok. You can lose your career, as Roseanne did, or at least lose the respect of your peers. Maybe keeping your rudeness to yourself wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Share your opinion with me - politely, please - via email at keller@wbztv.com, or use Twitter, @kelleratlarge.