Liberals are more likely to curse on blogs. They are, however, less likely to participate in eliminationist fantasies about adherents to major world religions or attempt to assault a sick 12-year-old boy's family because of their countertops.
Let's take Lucianne.com, the site mentioned in the article as having "no profanity at all". First topic on the main page, some highlights:
Reply 2 - Posted by: Highstick, 8/7/2008 11:49:35 PM
Obama and his group are caving to the clintons.
How would he react to say, the Russians ? (I wont bother asking about the towel heads)
Reply 4 - Posted by: equinefldad, 8/8/2008 12:56:46 AM
I thought the Dumorats were the party of peace (and tolerence and inclusion, etc.) ...
Just like Islam is the religion of peace ...
Reply 6 - Posted by: GeneSmith, 8/8/2008 8:58:05 AM
There'll be a papering-over of the rift between the Baracksters and the PIAPSists but don't count on it averting chaos. We need to get in there and surreptitiously stir up this vat of ill-will and excrement. Keep it bubbling 'til RatFest08!
Reply 9 - Posted by: geekrunner, 8/8/2008 9:13:18 AM
What I don't get is this demand by the PIAPS camp to be ''honored'' and ''respected'' for her ''historic'' campaign. If Hussein doesn't watch out, he'll get suckered into honoring and respecting her right into the nomination.
I feel wholesome, don't you? Bonus fascist thread, if you were interested.
I'm intrigued by anti-profanity arguments, because they almost always come back to relative intelligence and "hate". A person who excludes profanity from their vocabulary, other than losing some wonderfully useful words, gains some +3 to righteousness bonus. It doesn't matter what they're arguing or how they're arguing, because they always - always - fall back on the "you don't have facts and you can't argue coherently" misdirection. Substance, ironically, flies out the window because you're already declared substanceless, privy to the repeated scoldings of the prim and proper brigade of racists, sexists and miscellaneous bigots who would never dare curse at your kinky-headed, menstruating ass. It involves a whole series of misapplied and poorly reasoned arguments - that the use of profanity constitutes an "ad hominem" (it doesn't), that an argument is rendered logically invalid through the tacit admission of the speaker that they had to rely on the dread profanity to make it. It's an effort to control the scope of argumentation through arbitrary linguistic boundaries.
The other problem is that profanity is almost always considered to be the signpost of anger. Which is, pardon my language, rigoddamndiculous. I grew up in a household that cursed, and profanity was used for everything from surprise to anger to sadness to joy to satisfaction to annoyance. I also grew up in a house that read constantly, that encouraged the use of a rich and ever-expanding vocabulary, that led me to win spelling bees and writing competitions and scholarships. This is because my house was fucking awesome.
The saddest part of all this, though, is that profanity triggers the "you can't win an argument without namecalling/profanity/etc." argument...which in turns keeps many conservatives from ever getting anywhere near a coherent argument (cf.: Jeff Goldstein or, really, anyone at Protein Wisdom...or Michelle Malkin...or Little Green Footballs...or any conservative site, really). They've so convinced themselves of their own intellectual superiority through denial of profanity that they often cease thinking once profanity enters the conversation.
It is nice, though. It provides an endlessly interesting way of stopping any number of conservatives from making bad arguments - just say "fuck", and they'll think they've won. Should spice up your Labor Day picnic with your random conservative uncle who flew in from Jersey to talk about all "those people" who are driving down the property values, housing crisis be damned. Just talk about how the potato salad tastes like chunky piss, and that little part of his brain should click in, releasing a series of self-congratulatory endorphins throughout his body.
