Potty mouths in politics are legendary, but has it been mainstreamed? Is it getting out of hand, and does it help or hurt the Democrats who increasingly use it?
I really don’t like it. But another place I don’t like it is in stand up comedy. I have heard very funny jokes that need and use the ‘f’ word. That’s fine. But I also have heard jokes that would have been quite funny except there were f bombs tossed in every fourth or fifth word. And the joke didn’t require it. It had no place in the joke.
Henny Youngman used to start a joke with ‘take…’ as in ‘take the government. The government………’ and then tell a joke. One day he said, as was his usual patter ‘Take my wife…please’. Perfect hesitation and then the ‘please’. It was hilarious. That joke is what he was famous for. Now that joke would be told. ‘F***. Take my F***ing wife please’. Not funny at all. Throwing in f bombs stops all subtle jokes with any nuance.
By the way, "just about everyone I’ve ever met in the military" may be true -- my Army uniform was hung up for good twenty years ago after 36 years on active duty, and things may have changed -- but profanity was almost never heard while on duty. The higher the rank, the less the profanity.
It's as if, as was stated in the article, profanity is a substitute for power. Lower ranks had little, so cursed more. I'll be glad when we're all tired of it.
I think some Democrats think that cursing will make them appear "more authentic" to the working class that they have been losing. The problem is that as long as Democrats support things like EV mandates and sex-change operations for minors, no amount of cursing is going to change that. However, I think we have to blame Donald Trump for much of the coarsening of the public square. His appeal has been to the angry populist - and his cursing indicates that this billionaire understands their anger. Many Democrats seem to misunderstand that the working class likes Donald Trump precisely because the elites they blame for their circumstances hate Trump. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So, their cursing will not change anything until their policies change.
I should add that having grown up in New York as Donald Trump did, many curse words are part of the 4th-grade spelling curriculum.
If that is all you have you have to resort to the use of profanity!! It isn’t a IQ thing, it is resorting to the only thing you have to use!! No message, no direction, no support, no nothing except profanity. I even say a lady who said she wasn’t used to cursing in public then went on to drop th “F” bomb and laughs like a teen anger. AND WE THINK THIS IS LEADERSHIP? NO JUST LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!
I really don’t like it. But another place I don’t like it is in stand up comedy. I have heard very funny jokes that need and use the ‘f’ word. That’s fine. But I also have heard jokes that would have been quite funny except there were f bombs tossed in every fourth or fifth word. And the joke didn’t require it. It had no place in the joke.
Henny Youngman used to start a joke with ‘take…’ as in ‘take the government. The government………’ and then tell a joke. One day he said, as was his usual patter ‘Take my wife…please’. Perfect hesitation and then the ‘please’. It was hilarious. That joke is what he was famous for. Now that joke would be told. ‘F***. Take my F***ing wife please’. Not funny at all. Throwing in f bombs stops all subtle jokes with any nuance.
"Knock it off," indeed.
By the way, "just about everyone I’ve ever met in the military" may be true -- my Army uniform was hung up for good twenty years ago after 36 years on active duty, and things may have changed -- but profanity was almost never heard while on duty. The higher the rank, the less the profanity.
It's as if, as was stated in the article, profanity is a substitute for power. Lower ranks had little, so cursed more. I'll be glad when we're all tired of it.
I think some Democrats think that cursing will make them appear "more authentic" to the working class that they have been losing. The problem is that as long as Democrats support things like EV mandates and sex-change operations for minors, no amount of cursing is going to change that. However, I think we have to blame Donald Trump for much of the coarsening of the public square. His appeal has been to the angry populist - and his cursing indicates that this billionaire understands their anger. Many Democrats seem to misunderstand that the working class likes Donald Trump precisely because the elites they blame for their circumstances hate Trump. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So, their cursing will not change anything until their policies change.
I should add that having grown up in New York as Donald Trump did, many curse words are part of the 4th-grade spelling curriculum.
Why am I not surprised at your last paragraph?
If that is all you have you have to resort to the use of profanity!! It isn’t a IQ thing, it is resorting to the only thing you have to use!! No message, no direction, no support, no nothing except profanity. I even say a lady who said she wasn’t used to cursing in public then went on to drop th “F” bomb and laughs like a teen anger. AND WE THINK THIS IS LEADERSHIP? NO JUST LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!
Always interesting!