Mamacita says:  I loathe euphemisms and most political correctness.  They cheapen the language.

Euphemisms and PC are a kind of censorship, and censorship is the action of a weak, fearful,  and ignorant mind.  Smart people understand that many words have more than one meaning.  Weak and ignorant people can’t, and, unfortunately, weak and ignorant people seem to be in charge of the universe.

Understanding the concept of “context” is of vital importance, and “context” is something many people do not understand in the least.  Weak and ignorant people believe that each word has one meaning, by golly.

I use this example with my students; in fact, I’ve been using it as my AIM lifestream all week.

How important is context?  Well, it’s one thing for Bill to do the dishes, and quite another thing for Bill to do the upstairs maid.

Same word; different context.

Weak and ignorant people changed the last page of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  Scrooge had no further intercourse with the spirits was changed to Scrooge did not ever meet any more spirits.

Bah, humbug.

Snow White doesn’t live in the woods with seven dwarves any more.  It’s politically incorrect.  Now, when the men are mentioned at all, they are referred to as little men. Well, pardon me, but a story about a young woman who lives deep in the woods with seven little men strikes me as a merry piece of porn, not a fairy tale.

We can’t call them fairy tales any more, either.  Again, politically incorrect.  Yeah, whatever.  Weak and ignorant people make me tired.

Oh, and there are no asses at the manger with Our Lord.  Now, only the ox and lamb may keep time.  And don’t even get me started on the idiot who changed don we now our gay apparel to don we now our best apparel.

Honestly, people’s brains are shrinking so fast, some people have nothing but a raisin in their skulls.

Even Anne Frank.  ANNE FRANK.  There’s a big brouhaha about The Definitive Edition of The Diary of a Young Girl, and the book has been removed from the shelves.  ONE PARENT complained, and now nobody’s kids can read this book.  Disgraceful.  Listen, bitch concerned mommy, you have a perfect right to forbid your own children from reading any book, but your right to do that ends on your own doorstep. Keep your fear, ignorance, and faulty belief/value system away from everybody else’s children.

Why are people so afraid of controversy?  People should be welcoming questions, not forbidding them.  I sincerely believe that a belief/value system that can’t stand up under a few honest questions, or even a few baiting questions, is NOT a viable value/belief system.  If yours doesn’t like questions, I have a question for you:  Why on earth would you continue to cling to it?  A belief/value system that can’t cope with questions or deal happily with doubt and controversy is a faulty, lousy, ignorant belief/value system.  Please, let’s all strive NOT to associate ourselves with such a system.

Sadly, many people wear their association with these kinds of systems like a crown or badge.  Sigh.

I was a participant in a Twitter War tonight about censorship.  I was agin it.  Yes, I lowered myself to participate in an internet war.  I’m so embarrassed.  I was already pensive and feeling a bit off, and the combination has made me actually surly now.  If I were the 8th dwarf little man, I would probably be Surly. Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Doc, and Surly.

But I won’t think about that today.  I’ll think about it tomorrow.  After all, tomorrow is another day!

Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a darn.

Ah, euphemisms and most PC.  Sprinkling glitter on a shit-pile and thinking that people won’t notice that it still stinks.

(Part of this post was first posted on Nov. 12, 2008, but it’s been updated and it cleaned up right nice.)

P.S.  The Diary of Anne Frank is a play, not the diary.  The diary is titled Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. And, totally unlike young girls of today, she often argued with her mother, had crushes on boys, worried about the future, wondered about her state of mind, and was curious about her body.  Just imagine.  Dear me, how abnormal of her.