Liberal Redneck responds to the news that the American Family Association is calling for a boycott of Target because of their bathroom policy that allows transgendered people to use the restroom that matches their gender identity.
But now things are getting worse. Now the American Family Association is deliberately sending men dressed as women into women’s restrooms at Target.
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20 Comments
Now that’s funny.
Love this guy.
Vulgar language and barnyard expletives are only funny to teenagers with undeveloped prefrontal cortices and vulgar, unthinking people. Doesn’t take much talent to get laughs that way.
Oh, and we just have to do something about that terrible man Trump and his potty mouth, don’t we?
Why not just be honest and call themselves The American Bigot Association? Because there’d be too much competition for the name?
@SC… Do I understand you to be saying the truly sophisticated and indeed righteous individual would deny equal rights to people of other gender (or gender identity), religious (or not) persuasion or nationality/heritage only while correctly using acceptably non-offensive language? Thank you, Miss Manners.
Meanwhile, and there is certainly some irony here, it is quite possible the members of the AFA who are cross-dressing and going into Ladies Rooms are those who for years have been able to do such things only in the privacy of their own homes. What a compassionate person would do is, to try hard to understand and accept them for who they are and help make them comfortable with themselves.
There are clearly some deep issues festering at different levels within these individuals and it’s best they find non-violent outlets for their anger.
CARTER SHMECKLE: I had a high school coach in the early 60’s who said the use of profanity was a sign of a poor vocabulary.
As it turns out, he was a Cretan who (like you) had no appreciation of the proper use of profanity.
I’ll put my prefrontal cortex up against yours any day, and twice on Sunday.
Speaking of Cretans, it’s all Greek to me. 🙂
“I never pump up my vulgarity. I wait for it to arrive in its own terms.” – Charles Bukowski
“I’ve been accused of vulgarity. I say that’s bullshit” – Mel Brooks
“I like your style, Dude. But do you have to use so many cuss words?” – The Stranger
“What the fuck you talking about, man?” – The Dude
Vulgarity, is the use of words that some feel offends their sense of decency. I personally find a lot of things the GOP offend my sense of decency, but I suspect the words used do not offend others. Hence the large number of population that agree with the Trump. They are words, nothing else, but what i find amusing is the sentiment more so than the use of colorful verbiage. The fact that a “southern redneck” {his moniker} has and is willing to rather profusely go against the main stream values of the south with an almost “religious” zeal is ironic and humorous. I am sorry Carter that the nuance of this is lost on you and that your sense of decency is offended. Your sense of decency should be offended every time the Trump opens his mouth on the news, every time a fox newscaster comes on the air with some old bigotry that the remainder of society thought long sense buried in some backwoods grave. You should be offended when the “southern strategy” has transformed the once respected institution of the GOP into the debacle of discrimination and fanaticism that it is today. Carter I guess our definitions of offensive are different and I’ll leave it at that.
Mike, Ralph and Dave,
You persuaded me. As liberal redneck said, people have to just get “used” to things that offend them, but don’t harm them (in any physical or monetary way). From here on, I know we can count on your open support for , say, all those college students who have been disciplined for making racist or anti-homosexual statements, or for posting on social media expressing similar sentiments. I also know you y’all would like to start seeing more words like n****r and f****t being used in public discourse, eh?. After all, those words are just hilarious to many people, and sticks and stones…well, you know the rest. (Pardon my squeamishness in not fully spelling these underused words. It’s a hangup I got from my puritanical parents.) And’s let’s start flying that Confederate battle flag again in South Carolina. Let all the “Cretans” who opposed flying it go to hell.
What I really admire about you fellows is your ability for empathy, not to mention your fairness in applying the same standards to all sides of an argument.
Oh, and Mike, it sounds like you suffer from cortex envy. You must really love the Donald.
Speaking of my sense of decency, can we tone it down a bit in here?
Carter, I know you are being satirical, but there are plenty of better places on the web for flame wars. This site has a long history of people occasionally showing up and being incendiary. Many of them have calmed down, stopped throwing insults or making fun of people they disagree with, and become some of our best commenters. And that definitely includes people with whom I personally disagree.
I have high hopes for you.
CARTER SHMECKLE –
LGBT rights are not special rights, they’re equal rights. Special rights are tax exemptions for churches and religions that nevertheless seek to impose their antiquated beliefs and practices upon the general, tax paying public. It’s a recognition of modern biology put into social practice coupled with the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state.
Words are not intrinsically vulgar, they are simply descriptors, crude or otherwise, though I agree they can be offensive to one’s sensibilities. Fair enough. But isn’t that the price of having a 1st Amendment? IMHO, what’s really vulgar are people saying or committing harmful acts, like wars or racial animus, upon otherwise innocent, peaceable folks. Life is short, live and let live.
So is my gov’t committing or condoning vulgarity here, or simply preserving a bit of cultural history?
http://www.syracuse.com/celebrity-news/index.ssf/2016/03/george_carlin_dirty_words_library_of_congress_registry.html
Ralph,
“LGBT rights are not special rights, they’re equal rights. Special rights are tax exemptions for churches and religions…”
I’m not sure how that pertains to our discussion of “vulgarity.” Are you saying that LGBT people have the right to offend, because LGBT views are true and virtuous, whereas Christians have no such right, because their views are evil and have been disproven by Dawkins and Hitchens?
“isn’t that the price of having a 1st Amendment?”
Agreed. But the First Amendment “goalposts” shouldn’t be moved depending on whether someone likes the particular opinions being expressed.
Respecting your link, your government is preserving a bit of cultural history that happens to be vulgar.
Look, I certainly don’t favor banning “vulgarity.” But just because one has the right to use profanity, doesn’t mean that it’s right to do so. If memory serves, Trump has been attacked for his profanity many times. Those who express liberal views, not so much. I guess that class in the defense of the progressive agenda is no virtue, and profanity in opposing conservatism is no vice.
BTW, if you check out my blog, newsgrin.com, you’ll see that I am no Republican shill. I attack hypocrisy wherever I find it.
Getting back to the original issue, my overriding point is that too much of what passes for “humor” these days is just lazy vulgarity. Easy to get a laugh, but not saying much. There are obviously exceptions. Carlin certainly sometimes was one. The liberal redneck rant was not, IMHO.
IK,
I don’t feel that your characterization of my comment was at all fair. I satirize ideas. I generally do not make ad hominem attacks. (Admittedly, the last line of #10 above was an exception, but that was in direct response to someone calling me a “Cretan” and questioning my intelligence. No one but my wife and my paying clients has the right to do that and not expect a response.)
If you read objectively the things you and your commentators post about Republicans (and Bernie) on a near daily basis, you will see that what I write does not begin to approach the prevailing vitriol level.
It is a sad fact that both sides of the political divide these days seem to be in mutually exclusive echo chambers. I try to bridge that divide in my own small way. I regret that you see same as out of bounds.
Carter, you will notice that when Mike (#6) called you a “Cretan”, I (subtly) defended you. If he had persisted in calling names (as you seem to be willing to do), I would have given him a sterner rebuke. Besides, I think you have very good things to say, but the way you are saying them can often not be very effective.
I (obviously) disagree with your characterization of the vitriol level in this blog. I like Bernie Sanders and I agree with him quite a bit. I am happy he is in the presidential race and have never asked him to drop out. The worst thing I have said about him is that he doesn’t have a real chance of winning the nomination and that even if he did win, he would be more likely to be defeated by the Republicans, and (a few times) I’ve said that I think Clinton would make a better president (and even provided a reason — because I’m a pragmatist like Clinton and Obama, and Sanders is pretty clearly an ideologue).
I also post favorable things about Republicans. In fact, there is a post about George W Bush that I had already scheduled for tonight.
IK,
OMG, George W. Bush, the guy who blundered into Iraq, blew the Clinton-era budget surplus and before he was through led us into the great recession? HE’S the Republican whom you like? Is Dick Nixon your second fav? Couldn’t you have picked a competent GOP president, say Dwight Eisenhower? 🙂
That said, I’ll keep an open mind until I read your post.
Even the “worst president ever” sometimes does things that are funny or worth noting. 🙂
CARTER, I myself disagree with flying the confederate flag, but with that said I will fight for the right for my neighbors to fly what I consider a symbol of bigotry. I will hope and pray that they will see the error of their ways but I will defend the first amendment right. Where I draw the line is United States government institutions flying a flag representing an anti-American insurrection with the one exception of civil war museums, battlefields and forts where the symbolism is necessary for the story to be told.
I now need to mention that first amendment rights have restrictions, and the limits being used by colleges are dancing on the knife edge in this regard. When the ability of free speech is to be restrained when it borders on harassment to the point of immediate harm is imminent. And that will have to be considered by a case by case and I cant put forth a blanket policy to all the college kids being muffled.
Carter –
“I know we can count on your open support for , say, all those college students who have been disciplined for making racist or anti-homosexual statements…”
I actually wouldn’t support such disciplinary action, though admittedly am not familiar with those particular incidents; but neither do I have sympathy for the students who recently claimed emotional and mental anguish merely at seeing “Trump” written in chalk on a campus walkway. Dear Lord, kids! A university is, by definition, where opinions are to be encouraged and ideas freely exchanged, regardless of how crude they may be or whose ox is gored. The price for free speech, of course, is to tolerate being offended or risk being ostracized by the offended party(s), including friends, colleagues and possibly also employers. As they say, discretion is the better part of valor, but there’s apparently a disturbing trend happening on some campuses these days, which may be a measure of how far the political correctness pendulum has swung to a rather absurd degree. Seinfeld stopped performing on college campuses lately because of this stifling PC trend.
But my LGBT comment was directed more at the intolerance and hostility on the conservative side of the ledger with regard to sexuality (admittedly nothing new there) and, honestly, wasn’t sure exactly what to make of your comment. It just seems there’s something about those “naughty bits” in religious circles that really hits a nerve (the virgin birth, the genital snipping, the taboo on contraceptives, to cite a few). Hey, I’m a recovering Catholic, I should know! It’s astonishing how many Christians seem to feel under constant threat, with Sharia Law just around the corner and every year another War on Christmas. I’m not aware of anyone in the LGBT community (full disclosure: I’m not in it) demanding laws or particular rights or restrictions that prohibit Christians from practicing or expressing their faith in any way, so long as it doesn’t infringe on their own personal space or the public square. I agree that they have become more assertive, even strident, in more recent years as one goal or another has been achieved through the momentum of their collective political and civic actions. Success breeds confidence breeds success. At some point, hopefully, things will chill.
I certainly agree that vulgarity in itself is no substitute for wit, wisdom, or humor and many comics and others do use it as a cheap substitute. For me, it can quickly misfire and detract, become boring when misused or overused. A fine line easily and often crossed.
OTOH…”Trump has been attacked for his profanity many times. Those who express liberal views, not so much.” I would argue here that Trump has voluntarily put himself in the spotlight, vying for the highest elected office in the land and so now is being held to a higher standard, by most anyway. Before his run, I can’t recall his salty language ever being an issue, but I never paid him much mind before either. Larry Wilmore was chided after dropping the N-word at the end of his shtick at the WH Correspondence Dinner, as was Biden for his “f-ing big deal” comment he whispered to Obama, captured on tape during the press conference about the ACA passage, and Rahm Emanuel was hardly admired for his serial vulgarities during his WH tenure. Cheney too pulled no punches with vulgarities towards Harry Reid and other Congressional democrats in his time, but I can’t recall the party of family values raising much fuss about it. But as they say, politics ain’t bean bag. In the end, profanities are just a part of the tool box, and as Mr. Natural always said, “Use the right tool for the right job!”.
BTW, I’ve seen your blog on several occasions, have found it to be creative and amusing. An equal opportunity destroyer, well done sir. Or as Borat might say (after a broken English vulgarity), “Great success!”.
That’s my long-winded story and I’m stickin’ with it!
Ralph & Dave,
I don’t think that we are actually too far apart in our views on free speech. Our views of what constitutes good taste may be another matter. 🙂
And thanks Ralph for the kind words about my blog.
As it turns out, today’s episode of The Takeaway, a daily radio show on current issues, has a 10-15min piece on the changing nature of free speech at American colleges and universities, with several interviews with professors and administrators weighing in. Some interesting inside perspectives worth a listen.
You can download a podcast on i-Tunes or the source of your choice, or listen directly through their website at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/takeaway/
Cheers!