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No one is offended by the original version of this song. Literally no one. https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1329353286877671424
This is the PC equivalent of Victorians prudishly covering chair-legs lest anyone became offended by them.
Words are words
I never yet did hear
That the bruised heart
Was pierced through the ear.
William Shakespeare there, weighing in on the debate about political correctness 500 years ahead of time .
PC is basically Bowdlerisation updated & revamped as being somehow âprogressive.â
I never yet did hear
That the bruised heart
Was pierced through the ear.
William Shakespeare there, weighing in on the debate about political correctness 500 years ahead of time .
PC is basically Bowdlerisation updated & revamped as being somehow âprogressive.â
Its curious how in the space of my life-time censoriousness has become a left-wing trait whereas it was once more of a right-wing trait. The left of the 1960s & 70s used to fight against overly zealous censoriousness whereas now they are more likely to seek to impose censorship.
Im not a huge fan of the book but Haidtâs book âCoddling of the American Mindâ is surely onto something when he talks about the concept creep which has taken place over the last forty years or so in respect to the expanding definitions of what we believe constitutes âharm.â
No one was harmed by listening to Fairytale of New York.
Its the cognitive dissonance that gets me. Mike Read censoring Relax in 1984 is seen as dreadfully reactionary, but yet doing the same thing 36 yrs later is now seen as a sign of progress.
& many of the same people who were defending scantily-clad pre-pubescents provocatively twerking in âCutiesâ two seconds ago will now nod along to the Bowdlerisation of âFairytale of New York.â A real odd world we live in folks.
I love Ed but this is a load of bollox https://twitter.com/edwest/status/1329399130637078531?s=20
âFaggotâ isnt a swear word as such, like âfuckâ is for instance. Its a homophobic slur.
One is not endorsing the use of the term when one argues that it should be kept in the song when it is aired. Nor is one necessarily seeking to âown-the-libs.â
The point is not to âown-da-libz,â the point is to treat ppl like adults who can work out for themselves that Shane MacGowan (in Tom Waits-esque fashion) is inhabiting a certain kind of character when he sings that song. The type of character who would use that term.
Its about authenticity in art & treating ppl like adults. Its not about âowning-the-libsâ or endorsing homophobic slurs.
Why is this so hard to understand?
Either play the song unexpurgated or don't play it at all.
Its as simple as that. One or the other.
Why is this so hard to understand?
Either play the song unexpurgated or don't play it at all.
Its as simple as that. One or the other.
The song is telling a story involving two characters, one of those characters is the kind of guy who would use that term. If you are an adult you should be able to intuitively grasp this without it being explained to you & resist it be expurgated as completely missing the point.
Lets treat ppl like adults. If thats âowning-the-libz,â fine. Play it after 9 if necessary, also fine. But leave the song as it is. Thats all Im saying. Lets stop infantilising ppl.
I notice centre-left folk on Twitter giving it the old âthis is a confected row & tedious.â The only thing I find tedious is the level of disingenuousness on display when ppl make those kinds of arguments.
We are living in age when a granny can get arrested for writing RadFem blogs (yes this has happened) & the Dictionary gets revised in real-time in order to keep up with the latest whim of progressive activists. Some push-back is necessary Im afraid. https://twitter.com/SteveKrak/status/1316223349719216128?s=20
Centre-left types dont get this because their views tend to be so anodyne as to be offensive to no one. They think thats a good thing, not necessarily Im afraid.
Centre-left politics consists of the kinds of things its safe & polite to say at middle-class dinner parties.
So ofc they find debates about free speech tedious. They dont need to worry, it never effect them. They wont be found guilty of wrong-think or wrong-speak. This is other pplâs problem, not theirâs. They will be ok.
Free speech is not a problem..... for them.
