The other day one of the kids shouted “don’t use the F-word or I will hit you. We are not like that!” And I was dismayed and had to quietly say that there was nothing wrong with saying fuck.
Which makes one ask: why is this so. Why would people be so hysterical over a trifle? I find it hard to put into words, but I think I can now explain my view.
Is the problem with the meaning of the word? I would say fuck if 1) I hurt myself or 2) maybe if I was talking about the sex act. The first is very much more likely.
If it was the meaning of the word that was the problem, then the substitution trick people use would not work. Substituting say, fruit, for fuck would still be offensive, because the meaning is offensive.
No, I think it is about conformity. What she was saying is we are not like that. If you don’t behave according to out rules then we will hate you so much we will hit you. The fact that the rule is arbitrary and pointless is the whole point. It means you either are one who conforms, or who does not, irrespective of the rule. It makes you one of them or one of us.
I personally am horrified by this. Not because of the rule itself. But be aide of the associated hatred and violence that comes with this. It touches in a small way at the very heart of the evil that mankind insists on inflicting upon itself.
And thus I refuse to partake in such nonsense and therein lies the point of failure. People are blind to seeing past their you are this or that blinkers.
So, saying we don’t like people who say fuck, earns one star on the Her Goebbels bigotry scale.