>First..it's not self censorship..its taking the
>feelings ofothers into
>account before you open your mouth.
I'm going to define self-censorship as follows:
"Watching the words that you say because you're
concerned about how other people will feel about you
saying them."
Whether yr motives for self-censorship are noble or
not is another matter altogether. If you are
consciously picking and choosing yr words based on the
reactions that other people might have to them, well
then you are censoring yrself for one reason or
another. Perhaps you're censoring yrself because you
realize that there is a time and a place for crude
language and you are deciding against making such a
display public. Or maybe you are biting yr tongue
simply because you respect other people's wishes to
remain clean-cut and upright. It's possible that you
fear the backlash of others from using words that are
racy or taboo. Whatever yr reasoning, you are still
doing it. Everyone does it. I do it at work all of
the time, mainly because I could get fired for calling
the idiots that I work with "fucking imbeciles" or
"mindless fucking morons." But I think that if you
are letting the opinions of others make choices for
you, well then you are spineless. Sometimes I watch
my words out of respect, but never do I keep my mouth
shut because of what other people might think.
>Its not about an inabilty to expressyour views, or
>other people stopping you from speaking your mind,
>butsimply an empathy
>that your words can and sometimes do offend and
>enrageothers. I dont see
>how taking other people's feelings into account is
>such aterrible
>cessession of personal freedom.
I never said that it was such a huge loss of personal
freedom. I'm not the one calling anyone a cunt or a
faggot here, either. I just don't think it's fair to
dub a handful of words inappropriate under the premise
that they refer in vulgar terms to parts of the human
anatomy. Following that logic, one should refrain
from using the word "dick" or "dickhead". That was
the original point that I was trying to make, that if
you want to clean up one aspect of language, then you
should be willing to clean it all up. Unless of
course you're simply going to pick and choose what is
acceptable and what is not. Which by the way you are
already free to do of yr own accord without the
compliance of an electronic mailing list and its
patrons. Why is it OK to degrade the male anatomy and
not the female? Sounds like reverse discrimination to
me.
The point I'm trying to make is simple: if you want to
slice and dice words so that they are not offensive to
certain people, then you have an awful lot of chopping
to do. Different people have varying tolerances for
language - what may be harmless to you might be crude
or uncouth to someone else. For hundreds of years,
the most heinous word that could be uttered in Jolly
Olde England was the word "bloody." It was the most
offensive word known to man. In the New World, the
most sinister word was initially a little acronym
referred to as "fuck." Forced Unlawful Carnal
Knowledge. When a colonist had illicit relations with
another person, be it their relative, neighbor, or
stranger, the acronym "f-u-c-k" was placed on a
placard around their neck as they hung in the stocks
for a day where the whole colony could see and take
note. Is that word offensive to anyone? There was a
time when you couldn't hear words like "goddamn" and
"asshole" on television, whether it was cable or not.
There was a time when you couldn't show the pointless
graphic violence that pervades the tube on a nightly
basis now. The times are changing. I'm not about to
"temper" my language just because one person deems it
inappropriate. If yr interests lie in keeping
everyone around you comfortable and happy, then may I
wish you the best of luck in achieving happiness. I'm
not trying to make curse words in general a rallying
flag for the first amendment, but I'm certainly not
going to sit on my ass while someone tells me that I
shouldn't say "green" or "blue" because they don't
agree with those colors.
*sigh*
Now, my spleen aches to vent once more...
MOGWAI
You don't like them?
Sorry about yr luck.
They're not for everybody, I guess.
They just happen to be one of my favorites.
If you can't get into it, then don't try. Lost cause.
It comes and it goes,
*phiL*
=====
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