Filed under: Bureaucracy, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economics, Education, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Law, Media Bias, Police, Politics, Regulation, The United States | Tags: Aphorisms, Hate Speech, Vulgarity
Old time saying or “aphorism”: There are a lot of words to describe those old-time sayings your grandmother had. In our family, when you dropped something breakable and it broke – my aunt always said smartly “You dropped something!” I really have to guard my tongue to keep from saying it, because it always enrages the dropee. But there are tons of them, many probably regional, or outdated: “A stitch in time saves nine” probably refers to a time when every High School’s Home Ec. classes included some basic sewing. Do they teach Home Ec. any more? I suspect not.
We have, however, become a society that parses every word (particularly of the opposing political party) and condemns anything questionable that is uttered. This is happening at the same time that normal language has become extraordinarily gritty and vulgar. New Lefty congressperson Rashida Tlaib had barely set foot in Congress for the first time when she came out with a vulgarism targeted at the President of the United States. I don’t need to repeat it here, it has been widely circulated, with surprisingly little condemnation.
Condemnation has become the rule for what is currently defined as “Hate Speech,” but vulgarity has become the rule, and as far as I can tell, is never discouraged or condemned. Anything that can be categorized as “Hate Speech”is a different matter entirely. We have a neighborhood website that posts stuff neighbors have to give away, sell, ask for recommendations for services from doctors to waste hauling, and to complain about anything and everything related to our city and community.
Recently someone posted about “Hate Speech” in reference to something that had appeared on her driveway. Eventually a photo of the offending piece appeared, and today an article about the “neo-nazi flyers” appeared in the little local “newspaper” that exists for local advertising, that gets tossed in our driveway. The picture reveals that the “neo-nazi” hate speech turns out to be “Better Dead than Red”, a slogan left over from the Cold War, which is pretty thoroughly outdated. (Have our younger people ever heard of the Cold War?)
Great uproar, Police called, many times. Don’t know what the police did, probably nothing, but they could possibly get the perpetrator for littering.The distributor apparently gets a kick out of alarming suburban housewives over nothing at all.
College campuses, however, seem to be hotbeds for calling things “hate speech”as they reject conservative speakers or anyone who disagrees with their ideas, often by rioting. Note: you may not, in an educational institution set aside and dedicated to education and history, say anything with which the inmates might disagree. This is an alarming situation that needs to be challenged with a hefty dose of common sense, and perhaps a little history.
We do need some common sense here, and to stop trying to deprive a person of a job or livelihood because of something they said. If a comedian says something truly offensive to you, don’t buy a ticket to his or her next performance, but lighten up. Tell the vulgarians to knock it off! Tell them their language is not acceptable.
But let’s not go all overboard. People are only human, and when angered apt to say things they may later regret. You have undoubtedly done that yourself, I certainly have.
We have real disagreements between our political parties, and solutions need to be worked out. Study up. Learn about the issues. Write to your Congressional representatives. Congressional representatives whether in the House or Senate, need to know what their constituents are worried about. They will not know unless they hear from you. And they need to know that they have constituents who don’t like what they are doing. It’s called representative democracy.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
American Elephants 