The FCC: 1, 2, 3…
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Pulling back from the political absurd to the culturally sublime, it is also utterly ridiculous that the FCC contends it is enforcing community standards when it says that the nation as a whole finds bullshit to be among of the most offensive words in the language. Show me the man or woman — or, yes, child on a playground — who has not said “bullshit.� Show me one, and you will have found me a liar. Go to Google and you will find 30 million uses of bullshit. Bullshit is part of our language, part of our culture, part of our politics, part of our democracy. Those are not our community standards the FCC is enforcing. They are enforcing the fetish of the so-called Parents Television Council and their ilk. By stretching to make shit not merely indecent but now profane and by stretching again to include the s-word variants in that ruling — thus specifically encompassing bullshit — the FCC far overextended not only its dubious authority but also common sense. Gotcha again.
So let’s say the FCC reconsiders its foolish ways and decides that bullshit is, indeed, political speech and thus protected beyond even its reach. This, too, illustrates the absurdity of all this. What happens when that protestor yells the next time that Bush’s war is the byproduct of a rat or a monkey or an owl? Does the FCC has to decide which animals’ shit is protected? That is the level of absurdity we have reached here.
At the Foursquare conference recently, I questioned FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, saying that in the room we were hearing CEOs of major worldwide corporations calling on the FCC to pay attention to the urgent business of preparing our telecommunications infrastructure to protect us in case of disaster or attack and also the vital necessity to catch up to Korea and even France in broadband to protect our industry and our future. Yet, I complained, he was wasting his time instead, on farts.
And bullshit.
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Unbelievable. Read the entire article, it’s spot on.
Tags: activism, bullshit, FCC, free speech, Jeff Jarvis, politics.
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Fortunately, there are still those of us who care about maintaining some semblance of a polite society, although I do acknowledge that our numbers are dwindling rapidly. And we rightly shun the use of vulgarities to express public opinions of any kind, political or no. Mr. Jarvis reminds me of a schoolboy uttering a dirty word on the playground for shock value, in his perfectly silly and pointless post arguing his need to use a “cuss” word to express his thoughts. Bless his heart. What nonsense! Another naked emperor…
And yes, Sean, I know we disagree. ;)
Peace anyway,
CM
bullshit.
;-)
Our Miss Cara Michele is a really nice person. I say that because you and I both know her and know that to be true, but there are legitimate uses for EVERY word in the language with NO exceptions and to say there is no need for the word, Bullshit, is just plain wrong. For example, try to write this song without the word bullshit and the song is no longer of any value, and to say otherwise is Bullshit.
Spanish translation of bullshit: mierda
mierda mierda mierda y mas mierda
;-)
Heh. I have always thought that ‘cunt’ was the most offensive word in both UK and US English. That must’ve been bullshit. ;)
i’d argue that “Bush” is more offensive to the entire world, but that’s just my own opinion.
p.s. i’ll allow the previous use of see-you-next-tuesday to make a point on this particular post, but to everyone moving forward, please, use some good judgement with your choice of words. in essense, i encourage ideas that might offend people rather than language that will.
always remember, the internet is forever… hopefully. ;-)
Sean & Billy: Massive hugs. Peace, CM :)
(Sorry about myt blatant use of that 4-letter word btw — I could’ve been more subtle like the see-you-next-tuesday-thing.)
Anyways, I’m that provocative type of person. My use of vulgarities will probably never cease. Shock value is important. (To quote Paris on the violence in his songs: `So don’t be tellin’ me to get the non-violent spirit / cause when I’m violent is the only time you devils hear it”.
Fact is, for instance, most people rather understand that something is bullshit when someone says it is, than they have to investigate for themselves any socio-economic effects that any political decision might have on a global scale.
Also, in a true free world there ought to be room for folks like me. ;) But it is hard to live in a so-called ‘tolerant’ world which it, well, really is not.
dude, i feel you and agree with you 100%.