As of late, I have noticed a disturbing trend. Everywhere you look people are either condemning "bad" words causing a level a censorship which is now officially killing our society or claiming that money equals free speech thanks to yet another idiotic decision from a Supreme Court that is hardly Supreme and barely a court. We seem to have too much free speech in some cases and not enough in others. Why is it so hard for America to understand the principle of moderation? Considering we are the fattest people on the planet, this should hardly come as a surprise. The language police are out in force lately and unfortunately they seem no better at doing things than the real cops.Let's first look at the idea that bad words over the airwaves are going to make our children homicidal sex freaks that vote for a liberal/conservative/whatever pisses you off more candidate.
It's bunk.
Bad words have been around from the beginning of time. In all that time, no child has been destroyed by hearing a swear word at any point during their upbringing. So why are we protecting our children from these words? We aren't protecting them but the overly sensitive adults that seem to have the emotional stability of a mentally challenged three year old. These words have power until you take that power away, then they become meaningless. In today's society, words like shit and fuck, have no reason to be beeped out on TV for any reason. Why? THEY'RE FUCKING WORDS! Once we remove that stigma from it, don't we become a better society for it. We'd have to invent new swear words to replace the old which still wouldn't have the impact. If everytime I hit my thumb with a hammer and screamed, "KORF," I hardly think it would have the same impact as numerous other choice words.
A recent ad campaign wanted people to stop using the word "gay" as meaning not cool. Why? Shouldn't we want words to change meaning especially that one? I support gay marriage, have gay friends, but even I don't think this is a good idea. Words change meaning all the time. Gay used to mean happy, then sexual orientation and now not cool. It's called evolution and words do the same as people. We have this long line of words we are not supposed to say like gay, midget, retarded or even oriental. It's getting to the point of ridiculousness. The language police have no right to dictate right and wrong language in a free society. And to equate any of these words with things like nigger or cunt is downright laughable.
The reason for stopping this idiotic trend is twofold. One, every adult, teen, tween, or even child, knows the word being bleeped out on whatever show they are watching. So, if my mind can fill in the blank, how does that make it any less dirty? It shows a lack of sophistication and even intelligence that is shocking in its ineptitude. Newsweek magazine now swears in their articles, sans censorship, which is also why I've stopped doing it as well. It just seemed so juvenile.
Two, it also leads down a slippery slope of censorship. Once one word is deemed offensive, a lot of others suddenly become the same. Listen to a radio version of Everlast's "What It's Like," and see the words bleeped out like weed, hooker, and pimp. How are those not airwave ready words? Because the language police have deemed those words offensive and beeped them out. A recent idiot college student ran an unsuccessful campaign to remove Modern Family from the air because of an episode had a young child saying the F word. Oh the horror. We have people starving in the country every day, no one can get a good job anymore, and you're worried about a toddler saying "fuck." Good luck in your crappy life, loser.
In the case of George Zimmerman, censorship may have tainted his possibility for a fair trial. Let me start out by saying, I think the evidence we have on hand proves Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in cold blood. Proving that in court will be another matter and the MSM has not helped. NBC News was recently caught editing a 911 call Zimmerman made right before the shooting that made the accused look like a racist when, in reality, he was answering the dispatcher's question. Worse, this is the bleeped statement of Zimmerman that ran on every channel which literally was subtitled like this on many networks: "F********* *********" WTF? I thought for days it was "fucking nigger" only to find it was "fucking coon" later. Now it turns out, it was probably neither.
People who heard the actual tape, and didn't burst into flames by the way, say what he actually said was "Fucking cold," which it was that night in the low fifties and raining. Now all that could have been avoided had they played the tape unedited. But in order to protect our precious ears, a man may walk for murder because he now has the defense of not being able to get a fair trial. How does that level of censorship benefit us? It doesn't.
But what about the flip side and too much free speech? We have already witnessed what will happen with that and note my predictions for that were dead on, not that it was that far a stretch to see that massive amounts of money entered into the political system would have disastrous results. Romney has crushed his opponents, partly due to the amount of money raised and partly because everyone he was running against, regardless of their brief time at the top of the polls, crashed and burned with one stupid statement after another. The bumbling of Perry and Bachmann, the womanizing of Cain, the to the right of Hitler Santorum, the showmanship of PT Trump, the self importance of Gingrich, we had it all. But now, inevitably, Romney is the nominee and no one seems to care.
The ads this season are going to be doozies. Romney's SuperPAC will accuse Obama of being a socialistic, Marxist, Kenyan, secret agent for Iran and any other slur they can throw at him, none of which will work too well. Mainly because Obama's SuperPAC will eviscerate him on the topics like the Ryan Budget Plan, the GOP's war on women and Romney's vast money. Plus, he's going to lose badly in the debates. Obama was born to debate and the Mitt Bot is going to be stiffer than Gore.
Romney is already in trouble because of his idiotic move to the far right on women's rights. He was in Hartford the other day, blaming Obama because women are being hired less than men in the so called recovery we are having. The main reason for this has nothing to do with the president's policy and everything to do with the fact that more men lost their jobs in the early part of the recession than women by a three to one margin. With that disparity, it would make sense that when those jobs came back, men would be hired first to fill those jobs in things like construction and landscaping. This is actually good news and supports the idea that the economy is recovering somewhat, yet the GOP is trying to spin it in their favor. It does not appear to be working as most women are supporting Obama by 38% right now. That is a huge number and one that will be very hard to overcome.
The Super Pacs will probably not influence the national election too much as Romney has a Herculean task in front of him to get to the front of the race. However, the amount of money that will be used to basically buy local election will be shocking. There is a good chance that the Citizen United ruling by the Supreme Court may remove many a Republican from office as democratic SuperPAC's are going to destroy anyone who supported the Ryan Plan, an albatross around their neck. With gays, Hispanics, blacks and now women less likely to vote for a GOP candidate, almost every state is suddenly vulnerable. This ruling may have been what the GOP wanted, but beware of unintended consequences. You got outspent by Obama and wanted to level the playing field. You didn't think that your idiotic policies would come back to haunt you but there you are, behind the eight ball with no way out.
Romney can't reverse him positions or be labeled a flip flopper. He can't have it both ways with his rabid base and the more numerous moderate voters, and is trying his damnedest to little effect. This race is going to get ugly, uglier than we have ever seen, thanks to so much money in the system.
So there you have it. Too much speech or too little and fractures start to appear in our world. Moderation, logic and sensibility are the keys to a happier future. I wish more people would practice that instead of fighting over who's invisible friend is more powerful and the words they don't want you to say.
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