Words are why we are here today instead of on Facebook. Facebook says it’s a place to share opinions, but in fact it’s a place that expects you to share their opinions, and if you don't you are placed on The List. B
ecause incredibly over the course of a lifetime, America has become a nation of Neophobes, people who fear learning new and/or different things, things that exist outside their normal boundaries. The only changes they are willing to tolerate are those that make their existence more comfortable and pleasurable, even at the expense of others. So they’ve learned to preface all their demands with the words, ‘I Feel Like’ which we will be addressing in the near future.
Alarmingly this phobia has multiplied tenfold over the past 10 years because the knee-jerk reactions to words brought people the attention they so desperately crave. The faux fear is so greatly exacerbated that everyday somebody new is eviscerated in the public eye because of an offhand comment they made, many times in jest without thinking. Maybe they used a phrase that was a staple of their local lexicon but sometime over the last 40 years, somebody decided it may be offensive even though it truly isn’t, like ‘black as the ace of spades.’ Nobody can deny that the ace of spades is black and yet somebody decided you can’t say that because in another part of the country back in the 40s, a factor of people called blacks spades, or something like that. I’m still not quite sure what’s wrong with it but I think that’s the gist of it. Fortunately almost 80 years later, most of that nasty brand of racism has died off, but we’re going to keep digging it up as a cautionary tale while coddling the Feely-Mealy Neophobes.
To me it’s astounding that although I live in a country governed by a constitution, one in which the First Amendment is Freedom of Speech, that very same freedom seems to be ever diminishing even as we proclaim that it is not. Could that be doublespeak? I remember the shock in September 2001 when I heard that the song, You Dropped a Bomb on Me, was banned from the airwaves. Actually I laughed. After all no bombs were dropped, were they? Then maybe I would get it. But I noticed that the song wasn’t banned a few years later when we were actually dropping bombs on the wrong Middle East country for allegedly flying planes into the WTC, so does that mean that the outrage of killing innocent people is only worthy of empathy if the bombs end up in your backyard as opposed to someone else’s?
This leads me to an opinion that is more unpopular than Americans like to let on, because it’s Politically Incorrect, and that is this unbelievably ridiculous new concept that this country now has words that some people can use and others can’t. I’m not sure but I think there’s a vetting process to decide who can and can’t use the arbitrary words. I could tell you where the triple-secret meetings are held to make these lofty decisions but then I would have to kill you. Anyway most of you know and now understand that the N word heads the list. At first that seems benign, even agreeable. Sure, you don’t want Crackers, that word did not make the list by the way, nor did Honky or Whitey, going around calling black folks N, and yet if it’s so derogatory, harmful and hurtful, why do black dudes call each other that as if it’s interchangeable with the affectionate term, Bro? How hurtful can it be? Charles Latibeaudiere from TMZ has seemed to take on the role as the Chief Word Cop in deciding who can say what. He is constantly harping on Harvey Levin, the Jewish founder of TMZ that he can’t say the same thing Charles says because Harvey isn’t black. Are you fucking kidding me??? However the other day I think Harvey finally had enough of the Word Police on his own show and threw it back the other day when Charles informed Harvey he had no right to discuss black! Fortunately Harvey who is also an attorney informed Charles that he most certainly could and he wouldn’t commit any faux pas in doing so.
When you are dissecting every sentence structure and every word within every sentence structure for possible slights you really can’t possibly be listening to the message or paying attention to their body cues, can you? No, really. Because by the time you are done dissecting, examining and then dumping your background of emotions on top of that, not only is the message done, over, and gone forever, the true words are tarnished forever. Meanwhile your target is already onto a whole other subject, most likely with someone who is listening to them and not evaluating every nuance of their syntax. How are we ever to understand each other when we are unwilling to listen?
Actually it is not those who don’t always speak the way you like to hear or feel like hearing that are being hurtful. The hurtful ones are the people who are shoving an aggressive Political Correct Agenda down our throats by trying to shut down the voices of people whose opinions differ from their own. Instead of pulling people together with love and tolerance, they are attempting to quiet, diminish and even exile those with whom they disagree. Meanwhile the silencing of voices both great and terrible hurtles us down the path towards abolishing free speech which ultimately threatens all of our freedoms.
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