Friday, September 11, 2009

Why I fucking swear

Glenn Greenwald has a good post today about the whole Joe 'You Lie' Wilson episode. It is part of a larger meditation about a) who is considered 'serious' by the establishment (one of Glenn's popular themes for those unfamiliar), b) why people who swear are considered 'unserious' and reactionary, and c) why people who speak politely can advocate torture, extraordinary rendition and preemptive war and still get on CNN rather than being run out of town on a rail. 

Apparently the whole thing boils down to how people view being polite. It is not polite to swear, but it's fine to agree that hooking up a man's balls to a car battery is a reasonable course of action, so long as you refer to said 'balls' as 'testicles'. 

This is, of course, fucking insane. I agree that one should not swear all the time. Job interviews before it's explicitly made clear it's appropriate, for example. I don't think children should swear around their parents, not necessarily out of respect, but it's great training. You should have people in your life you don't swear around. I don't really have that right now, and haven't for about a decade, so when I DO get in situations where I should hold my tongue it takes a lot more effort.

But I digress. My point is... Read Glenn's post(and also the link to the post Glenn calls one of the greatest ever, it's a goody), and also this one by Zandar. We live in a world where people like Glenn Beck can say the most hateful ridiculous things possible, but somehow are not ostracized from the community. We live in a world where a Vast number of pundits talk about Torture like it's an intellectual exercise. It's fucking ridiculous, but if you say it's fucking ridiculous, well, you're not serious. Now, maybe we should hold our tongues. But sometimes only a good fuck will do. You know? It amazes me that even after all this time some people don't realize that societies' clowns are often its most serious people. Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks both swore like surprised and injured sailors and, I assure you, they were both dead fucking serious.

Anyway...

No comments:

Post a Comment