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Re: Re: Re: Profanity in the CB/Nodesby blue_cowdawg (Monsignor) |
on Jan 26, 2004 at 18:39 UTC ( [id://324216]=note: print w/replies, xml ) | Need Help?? |
The comment I made did not limit itself to profanity per se. There are lots of folks out there who would love to tell me what I an and cannot say in general. That more than limiting my "right" to use profanity is what I object to. In "polite society" use of profanity is considered at best crude. Certainly the day there was an irate customer at a McDonalds using language in fromt of children that burned the ears of this sailor I objected to the use of that sort of language. My solution was to politely ask the individual to tone it down and reminded him there were children present. Did I violate his freedom of speech? No. I gave him the option. Had he persisted I'm not 100% sure what I would have done since this event occured when I was much younger and more brash. An example of someone violationg my freedom of expression? How about the day that I had a supervisor yell at me for using the title "girl" when talking to one of my female co-workers. Out of context I know there is a concept that she is a "woman" and not a girl and some ladies take offense to being called a girl just as some men would take offense to being called a boy. In fact the term "boy" can be construed as someting even more offensive than "pre adult male". Putting my remark to my coworker in cntext the phrase I used was something on the order of "you go girl!" (not the exact phrase... I don't remember but that was the order of the phrase.) Now keep in mind two things:
Who is to be the judge of what is objectionable speech and what isn't? What is to stop well meaning but misguided folks from adding to the "objectinable words" list from their own prudishness and/or ignorance? Classic "war story" here. A certain large telecommunications firm that I worked for decided to have mandatory use of proxies for all web browsing. The proxies were set up to block sites that had "objectionable content." If a page had certain keywords in the content the page would be blocked. One day there was a special on-line forum concerning women's issues going on and the proxies blocked people from participating. Why? Because the page had the word "breast" in it as in breast cancer. I am not exagerating. You can't make stuff like that up. When was the last time you saw "society" take action against the use of foul language in music, TV programming or for that matter the movies? In fact I have heard mainstream commentators applaud young artists for song lyrics that were nothing short of being gutter talk. Watch "The Soparnos" sometime and try counting the number of times "The F-Word" is used in one episode. You won't be able to keep up. Commedias these days seem to think they aren't funny unless they spice up their language. My favorite comedian, Red Skelton, I don't think every cussed but he could get even the raciest concept across by leading your imagination to it. I say all that to say this: objectionability of word useage varies with context, the audience and environment. There is the "N-Word" which I personally don't use but in certain contexts is not objectionable. Between African Americans it is used all the time. Don't use it if you aren't African American on someone who is unless you want a fight on your hands (and in my opinion rightfully so.) Someone uses speech that is objectionable? Ask them to stop. If they persist ignore them and remove yourself from the situation. I worked for a Chief Petty Officer when I was in the US Navy who had a penchant for chewing someone out to the point they felt small enough to walk out the door without opening it. The felt like they fit right under it. The Chief never raised his voice and never used language that you couldn't use in church yet his command of language and vocabulary was just that good. My favorite boss in the Navy... I'll quit ranting now...
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