Fudge

 

Is anything truly unspeakable now?  The word that earned Ralphie Parker a mouthful of Lifebuoy, that even George Carlin (the James Murray of demotic English) said was to be saved for the end of the argument -- "Fuck you and everybody that looks like you!" -- at some point insinuated itself into everyday speech.  For example, last week in Mineral Wells, Texas, Beto O'Rourke was talking about gun control and the Uvalde mass murder when a member of the crowd laughed.  "It may be funny to you, motherfucker, but it is not funny to me," he responded.  This was remarked upon for several days, but nobody seemed to find it disqualifying for a gubernatorial candidate.  After all, Beto has form:  After the massacre in El Paso he had demanded, "Members of the press, what the fuck?" to disingenuous questions about whether Trump bore any responsibility for the deaths of 23 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.  He also observed that three hundred mass shootings per year was "fucked up."  That became a campaign shirt.  That was two years after Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated, "If we are not helping people we should go the fuck home," because ladies can swear, too.

There is, of course, a swath of the population that still grabs for the smelling salts (or pretends to) at "vulgar" language.  Some vulgar language, anyway -- they think it's witty when Trump tweets, "Every time I speak of the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection.  They can not help the fact that they were born fucked up!"  (The exclamation point is providing most of the wit.)  Every book about his reign of seditious error is replete with quotes employing similar language.  We've traveled far from newspapers printing excerpts from Nixon's private conversations studded with "[expletive deleted]," usually when he was discussing Democrats, journalists, Jews, the Washington Post and certain judges.  It's hard to believe the Trumpists were really shocked on election night 2018 when Rep. Rashida Tlaib assured cheering supporters, "We're gonna impeach the motherfucker."  

Even so, I was surprised when Barack Obama, who rarely allowed himself to display anger or any other emotion that might scare the suburbs, tweeted his response to Democrats passing, and Joe Biden signing, the Inflation Reduction Act:  "This is a BFD."  Which, as first-graders know, stands for "Big Fucking Deal."  No explanation necessary.  

Is that it?  Can you say anything?  Of course not.  Every society and subset of society defines itself by the forbidden.  Right now some people are asserting their right to be described by pronouns of their choosing, which strikes me as a silly little hill to die on (not to mention an occasion for rightwing mockery) but is clearly important to them.  People have lost jobs through careless deployment of racial and sexual terms, forgetting that a Facebook post is not a bachelor party.  A comedian named Jerry Sadowitz was cancelled by the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for being too offensive, which is the whole point of his act.  (His opening line, "Nelson Mandela -- what a cunt," pretty much defines oh-no-he-didn't.)  Not just offensive in places, like Jimmy Carr or Dave Chappelle.    People walked out because they felt "unsafe."  They're words, not weapons.  And Sadowitz is 60, so he's been doing this for a while.  Who bought tickets expecting Jim Gaffigan?

We'll never agree on what's acceptable, what's funny, what's beyond the pale.  But when we get distracted by the speech police, we lose sight of what really matters.