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In Defense Of Cursing
Posted on September 20th, 2005 2 commentsFrom Pandagon comes this great article “In Defense of Cursing“:
For some reason, “You’re a fucking racist idiot” is a more offensive statement than “black people have less native intelligence than other races, and embrace poverty accordingly”. Even worse is the “the major goddamn drain on the budget is the tax cuts, as the federal budget has shown every fucking year since 2002″, which simply blows “the tax cuts have increased revenue, because that’s the power of fiscal conservatism” out of the water. A lie, an insult, a grossly racist imputation is afforded legitimacy because it’s said nicely.
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I also do it because I find the conservative blogosphere to be one of the most closed-minded, insular, circular pits of denial I’ve ever encountered. The ringleader of the group has been calling those of us who are anti-war traitors going on three years at this point.
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You want to break into the message drivers and actually have a debate? [snip] You’re a little bit more likely to enter in to some form of dialogue with them if you piss them off than if you pretend they care about having an honest debate.
The article matches my experiences and is well worth reading for insight into how the two sides regard each other online.
2 responses to “In Defense Of Cursing”
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Adrianne September 26th, 2005 at 08:02
My beliefs are not up for debate with people who do not respect them.
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I’d suggest reading the article that was linked. There were two complaints in the article:
1. In American culture using a “taboo word” is far more offensive but saying something inherently racist or insulting in more indirect and flowerly language isn’t offensive. “You are a fucking moron” is far more insulting then “I’m afraid those of your cultural heritage and geopolitical origin are far less capable of engaging in a serious discussion of such complicated matters.” They are both direct insults yet the second implies you’d be too stupid to understand the strenght of the insult.
2. Another trend in American culture is that the only way to get a serious debate of an issue with rebutals showing some form of logic requires you to basically offend or shock the person to get a response. Otherwise they will instantly label you with a simple term (often used in an incorrect manner) and dismiss you with a short talking points recital. Or they will just ignore you.
In essence to have a serious conversation with others these days you have to offend or shock them first. You have to trigger an emotional response to get people out of the shell they develop around themselves. People don’t like discussing things that might bring into question their viewpoints on topics.
In our culture its not important if your argument is viable and compelling. It is far more important which viewpoint you’ve been exposed to (the first one minute soundbite that passed along the meme you will cling to without questioning it) then to actually think about it. Anti-intellectualism is becoming part of American culture. (See falling white male enrollment rates in colleges for sciences and non-buisness majors for an example of this.)
I’ll save my rant about Americans getting the government they deserve for another time and how big media isn’t pro-any party, they are just pro-money.
So to bring this all together… are you sure your beliefs are really ever up for debate? ;-)
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