Reverent & Free Speech
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 7/3/08 @ 8:06 pm - Filed Under National Politics
Craig over at Reverent and Free sounds off on a “Wake Up America” style rant that pulls no punches. I’m sure everyone won’t agree with what he has to say but in the spirit of Independence Day I thought it deserved highlighting as a reminder that in this great country we can spout off about nearly anything we choose. Free speech - ain’t it grand?
Now, we are told that the war record of another Vietnam vet is definitely “off limits”, unless of course it is used as evidence of McCain’s awesomeness.
With all due respect to all the vets out there, fuck Vietnam. I don’t care what happened to who over there. It was a fucked up, nasty war that no one ever should have fought. I wasn’t even born when the whole shitstorm started so I really don’t care.
Call me silly, but this seems a little more important than how LBJ fucked an entire generation…
[...]
The Taliban is back. You know, the primitive-gangsters who we should have been able to wipe from the face of the earth? You know, the people who were hiding Osama bin Laden after 9/11? You know, the man who actually launched an attack on this country?
So for all you Bush cheerleaders out there who thought something John Kerry said thirty fucking-years ago was somehow more important than a war that is actually being fought right now. Fuck you. Fuck you and fuck you some more you fucking assholes.
That is all
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13 Responses to “Reverent & Free Speech”
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Geez - quite a vocabulary. I will never understand why so many feel that the “f” word is such an awesome word that it must be used extensively to make a point.
I realize society is the arbiter of what words mean and whether they are acceptable or not.
Doesn’t saying “I disagree with your point of view” or “you’re crazy” or “you don’t know what you are talking about” or some other form of statement say the same thing?
Anyways, to the notion that he raises about not being born, so he doesn’t care. So, I wasn’t born at the time of any happenings prior to 1948. Does that mean I shouldn’t care about history?
We study history, we try to figure out future paths based on history, we incorporate history into our everyday lives (today, for instance), and we are supposed to learn from past mistakes in our history.
I can’t imagine not caring about history, so I am going to pop over right now to his blog and post a comment.
Charlotte,
You are so right on this one. History is our teacher. Without history you will repeat the failures of the past. Everything you learn in school is a form of history.
It is absolutely fitting of you, on Independence Day, to point out the unbelievable freedoms we all enjoy in this country of ours. While I find Craig’s diatribe to be nonsensical on it’s face, I’m proud to live in a country where even the silliest of opinions may be expressed.
Jeff, was it really necessary to post all of those F-Bombs?
Lowering your standards?
Charlotte, it’s [anyway] :)
Penny Wise:
Actually, it can be either. Here is what I found:
“Anyways” at the beginning of a sentence usually indicates that the speaker has resumed a narrative thread: “Anyways, I told Matilda that guy was a lazy bum before she ever married him.”
I think that fits what I was saying. :)
Penny Wise,
I think censoring the F-bombs would degrade from the point of the post. I think Tim Zank understood what I was getting at…
F words all over; and Vietnam is inconsequential because “I wasn’t born yet”.However, the consequence of the War of Independence, at which time he ‘wasn’t born yet’, allows him the freedom of speech to use words starting with f that do not pertain to freedom, fealty, or faith. One response would be to skip his posts henceforth, if we prefer to read well adjusted and articulate writers.
As a teacher once said to us, ‘Of course I eat pie, but I don’t eat it from a garbage can.” Same can be said here.
I did not say I am in favor of taking away his right to say what he wants - subject to restrictions put on free speech as imposed by the Supreme Court (obscenity, misleading commercial speech, defamation, etc.)
I read Craig’s blog, and I have the feeling that even if I didn’t, he is independent enough to not care.
I was asking why our language has come to the point where we use foul language to express almost every thought.
Then I moved on to my point that I don’t believe history is inconsequential simply because a person does not exist at the time.
I still stand by that point no matter what event in history we are discussing. Obviously, Craig’s point of view is a personal point of view, which he has every right to hold.
Charlotte,
The words were taboo for so long that they have added impact. Craig used those words to get a reaction and he succeeded.
Robert:
And yes they certainly did get a reaction. I remember the very first time I heard the word was when I was probably in second or third grade in South Whitley. I didn’t know what it meant, so I thought I would ask my parents.
Dad took my brother and me to the local drive-in for an ice cream cone, and it was warm out. I will never forget asking because we had the car windows down, and I just said as loud as you please, “Dad, what does “f” mean?”
I honestly thought he was going to knock me through one of the open car windows. Of course, I didn’t get my answer, and I was told never to say that word again.
And I didn’t, at least not in front of my parents.
Actually as some one who is a history buff and a frequent user of the f * bomb, in all of its forms and conjugations, I must interject that:
Technically The Bill of Rights (1791) not The Declaration of Independence or the Revolutionary War (1776-1781) secured our current ability to have free press, expression, association, and speech. BTW Keep in mind, President John Adam’s Sedition Act of 1798 and again in 1918 by Woodrow Wilson’s put a serious strain on that particular freedom for a while too. Speech/Press is not something that is completely free yet, even in this country.
The F BOMB? Cant we have an honest adult conversation and use the whole word? For the sake of St. Peter, it has been around as long as marriage has been a Sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church (4th Ecumenical Council of Lateran Basilica circa 1215 AD)
It has been around in the English Oxford Dictionary since the 1503 the word as defined in literature means “to press or strike firmly, to copulate”, even if the connotation means something else entirely different and/or repulsive. At one pointe Victorian era Proper Society switched to it so the wouldn’t have to use the lesser society’s or classe’s term of “Bloudy (spelled for pronunciation) Heall” which usually was screamed at the top of the lungs (Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady, etc.). As to where the F bomb, can be said with a smirk and a jowel and still get the point of dismay or even humor across. I will spare you an illustration but I once saw a couple have a complete fight and makeup session over the course of twenty minutes just by exchanging F You’s to each other repeatedly. I know I had a fun time, and they really did. It was quite intense.
Compared to a simpler albeit “vulgar” approach, the last three sentences would have been much more to the pointe had I just inserted (Bad Pun) one F word in the mix.
Within our own literature and entertainment venues it has appeared and been the topic of many a lazy boys research paper. There was a documentary done in 2005 on the f bomb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486585/ . Here is another review of the f word http://www.redbubble.com/people/kseriphyn/writing/764118-history-of-the-word-fuck
Lastly my personal favorite is the second or third verse of the song “On All Fours” by Jay Brannan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqCUzgd8AnU
Alas though is not that the problem of 20th Century America we consolidated everything down to contractions and acronyms and ROFLMAO and loose the fullness of expression, to the pointe that even a sitting President doesn’t know what the definition of “is” is; but at the same pointe challenge people to be artistically minded and wonder why they are not; but yet then, we complain when they do celebrate what they know, and how they know it, because GOD forbid, it might offend someone else.
That is my five dollars worth, I hope it helps.
Isn’t it strange how WHAT the man said seemed to over shadowed by the words he chose?
As one born long enough ago to enjoy the success of World War Two and the shame of our politicians on the Viet Nam War, Korea and now Iraq (note, I do NOT place blame on our servicemen and women), let’s look past the words! We now are pelted by them in the movies, on TV and radio. It doesn’t make them more acceptable, it just makes us, as a people weaker.
WE have permitted;
lousy politicians, lousy speach and, crime.
The one thing we learn from history is….
We fail to learn from history!
Thanks for the link Jeff, I guess.
You should hear how I talk to my pets!