This article explores the relationship between teacher authority and flaming in asynchronous online communication. Teachers who rely on what I call stabilization and universal applicability--two concepts emerging from a liberal democratic theory--may actually be preventing a full and robust understanding of the complexities of 21st-century democracy. Iris Marion Young and Chantal Mouffe, two postmodern democratic theorists, provide a foundation for understanding a democratic subjectivity that counters the tendency toward stabilization and universal applicability. As an alternative to the rhetoric of liberal ideology, I suggest that teachers begin to understand flames not as deficient forms of communication that require remediation but as part of a discourse of challenge that requires nuanced, thoughtful community response. (Contains 5 notes.)