By KAREN PARKER
County Line Publisher Emerita
Remember that old childhood mantra: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”?
I’m not sure I believe it now or I believed it then. Certain words had great value for the times when you hit your thumb with a hammer or broke mom’s favorite dish. “Fiddlesticks” just does not do it under many circumstances. And then there was my mother’s threat of a good mouth washing with (heaven forbid) Lava soap were I to use certain words.
By the teen years, I chafed under these restrictions. Hollywood and television were tightly censored. Whatever horrible disaster befell the hero, his response was, “Well, by golly” or “dang it.”
Books with naughty words were kept in the adult section, from which I was banned. In the popular television show “Ozzie and Harriet,” the couple slept chastely in twin beds, leading us to conclude that everyone who walked the earth was the result of an immaculate conception.
Traditional media has always eschewed the potty-mouth syndrome, with the exception of the occasional avantgarde publication.
Social media appears to have no such constraints. It has been my observation that people will say on social media such as Facebook things they would never say face to face.
The conservative writer George Will once called it “the coarsening of America.” At the time, I thought him a fuddy-duddy. I am less certain now.
Not long ago, I saw a commercial on WKBT in which Derrick Van Orden, a candidate for Ron Kind’s house seat, told the world he was really “pis*ed off” with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I didn’t think too much about it. But then it occurred to me: what if I had a 10-year-old child sitting in front of the television. It’s certainly not the way I want him or her to talk.
“Aw, mom, he’s running for Congress.”
I can hear the argument now.
And then there is the Village of Wilton clerk/treasurer, who posted a public “F**k all of you” on her personal Facebook page, apparently responding to WKBT’s segment called “Wilton Woes,” which aired in August. She took down the post after about an hour, but a screenshot was posted to the comments section at WKBT’s Facebook page, where it remained for some time.
I once fired an employee for using that sort of language with a customer. But, hey, times have changed. I have no confidence they will change back anytime soon.
Some researchers and authors have argued that people who curse a lot are lazy, have a more limited vocabulary, and lack education and self-control. But a study recently published in the journal Language Sciences finds that fluency in “taboo words” is correlated with having a larger vocabulary in general.
So, I guess we should all swear like a sailor to show our superior language and vocabulary skills. But, still, I am uneasy with slinging crude words around.
We are selective. Some readers may recall Rev. Charles Anderson, a local pastor who often dined with the early breakfast crowd at the Ontario restaurant, primarily with local contractors who could at times turn the air blue. In his presence, civility reigned. Yes, I am sure he knew the naughty words, but the contractor crowd held him in too much respect to speak those words in his presence.
It seems like a small step from foul language to physical threats to actual violence. One only has to watch the film clips of the Jan. 6 riots at the capitol to see a liberal mix of profanity-laced hostility as rioters bludgeon police. Scary.