Dumb Insolence !

The act of remaining silent in a presumptuous and insulting manner.

During the course of the Second World War if you were charged and found guilty of dumb insolence, you could be legally stood up against a wall and shot; so serious was the nature of the crime. It's an effective way of protesting in the face of authority when the words are not allowed to be spoken because they may incriminate you and while the fifth amendment of the United States ConstitutionNo person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger goes some what towards protecting perpetrators of the act, even there it can be overridden by the military, during times of war.

Now while authorities have found this type of behavior unacceptable in people who are accountable to them, they don't hesitate to use it themselves, when it suits them; to say "no comment". Reguardless of whether you are supported by an authority or not, it is particularly annoying when you come up against it, especially when the perportrator is just using the "crime" because they want their way and don't have a valid argument to support their case. In everyday life, dumb insolence can be used as a tool for bullying people, for example; a group of cool kids decide to ignore a nerd by pretending he/she does not exist or a mean spirited individual monopolizes something that somebody else needs and refuses to dialog on resolving the issue.

In the commercial world, the right to say "no comment" or punish someone for dumb insolence is metered out by Buck the Almighty.
In the world of public service the privilege is decided by, he/she whom recieves the most money from the public purse. In a fair and equitable democracy, no one would be allowed to sink so low that they would use dumb insolence as a tool for pushing people around, without a valid exemption for the instance.

I like to pride myself as being a decent judge of character by sticking to a few basic rules;
* don't relate the size of someones wallet to their worth
* don't morally grade someone on what church they attend or their position in it
* don't worry about what dangles between someones legs or lack thereof
and if someone is able to rationally talk about conflicts of opinion, they are less likely to resort to violence and unjust acts.