Thursday, January 11, 2018

Reader Question- Concerning Profanity

You talk shit about Trump swearing, but I know for a fact that you swear, too, so stop acting like such a high and mighty libtard. -Anonymous
Well, THAT didn't take long. I made a Facebook post about Trump calling other countries "shitholes"... oh, about fifteen minutes ago as of the writing of this particular sentence, and then this question appears in the Blog Inbox, the first time it's been used in a while now. It's actually fast enough that I somewhat expect that maybe I'm being trolled by a friend, and if that's true, well done, you got me.

But if this is on the straight and level, or at least as much as a reader question using the word "libtard" unironically can be, then it shows a fairly common misconception I've noticed before and worth taking a question on now, so thanks, anon.

So here it is, the big secret: Liberals like me don't really care all that much about profanity.

I do swear. Not too terribly much, but I am a huge believer in the power of words, and I have found that a well placed f-bomb can get the point across far better than a hundred other words, and just think of all that time saved! So allow me to set your heart at ease... our problem is not that Trump is a potty mouth. Our problem is that he denigrates people.

You see, the whole impetus behind the concept of "political correctness" is not that some words are good and others are bad... it is that some words treat people as less than human, and we'd really wish you wouldn't do that. That is why, for instance, it actually ISN'T a big deal when some people of African descent call each other the N word, but is a big fucking problem when YOU do it. Because when they use the word, it's as between friends, or with some other layer of understanding.

When you do it, Mr Anti-Political Correctness, it's racism, a word designed to cause pain and used for that purpose.

That's how language works, how it has always worked. Context always, always, ALWAYS matters.

This is kind of similar to when people acted like Clinton supporters were being hypocrites for being mad about "grab them by the pussy" but being fine with Clinton supporting Beyonce, even though she was, and brace yourself here, a woman who is occasionally sexy in public.

It's not that sex should never be spoken of. It's that there are many, many lightyears between a proud embrace of sexiness and a brag of sexual assault.

Now, to get ahead of the Biblical rant, yes, the Bible does encourage us to see that what comes out of our mouths is glorifying to God, and I have no doubt my grandmother would be several kinds of horrified by the post already. But I've believed for awhile now that we make a mistake when we combine the concept of profanity with the Biblical concept of swearing.

For one, "swearing" as it exists in the Bible was primarily a way to invoke the name of God in order to force God to back you up. "as God is my witness," and that sort of phrase are examples, even if rarely meant that way anymore. This falls squarely under "Do not put the LORD your God to the test" commandments... God is not your dancing monkey, and people who attempt to force the hand of the almighty do not do particularly well in the scriptures.

So, as a rule, I do not call for God to back me up by providing a sign, or striking someone dead, or attempt to bargain to force God's hand. That is swearing, that is taking the LORD's name in vain. But if what comes out of my mouth is meant to mirror the cleanliness of my soul, then I believe that referring to the homes of many of God's people as "shitholes" is worthy of some serious anger and derision. Similarly, I wish people were more angry about "grab them by the pussy" or "They're Rapists," or "Bomb the Shit out of them."

If folks passed statements like that by without second thought, but are bothered about the fact that I wrote "fuck" in this blog, then the exact natures of God's exhortations concerning our language are going to need a LOT more work.

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