Not that I'm prudish about DU language.

I have been at other blog sites. Freepers do connect to DU , they have forwarded threads they thought extreme.
My question. We are not prudes and language or so called extreme viewpoints don't offend me. Free speech and all that.
But, when someone uses excessive language, ever occur to one that freepers are watching and use our sometimes strong reactions to a given event as proof positive that we are out of the mainstream.
I know, the question , should it matter? Does it?

They're fucking morons.

If it's well worded, I'm okay with it. Half of them can't read or spell as it is...it appears.

I don't change my behavior out of FEAR that others are watching.

WYSIWYG in the way that I express my ideas here as I would openly to my friends in my daily life.

Hell! If the Freeper's lives are so damn shallow that they have to "tune in" here and then snipe at us, that's great - because at least maybe a few will, through an education, cease to drink the Right Wing Kool-Aid.

seen anything than can compare to the crude, low-rent trash that comes from right wingers -- period.

not ever.

It is just mind boggling how much they hate anyone who isn't just like them.

is something else altogether.

and I mentioned that I tended to think a lot about my wording due to the "other audience" out there. Some scoffed, which is their right; but I think that now, especially now, a Muslim must be sure they present themselves as they are, in a way that is not open to misinterpretation.

I was one of the most brutal flamings I've ever had here.

Many of us like to think we're in a bubble. I'm reminded of stupid teenagers posting their diaries on MySpace then freaking out about their privacy when Mom and Dad find it online.

as I do about content.

The conspiracy theorists about 9/11, the bombing in Madrid and in London, the liquid-based plot to explode an airplane, the fact less attacks on Israel and the language used make me cringe. This is the type of message that the Republicans can use to show us as crazy people who cannot be trusted with the important business of running a government.

As for profanity - I think that it shows the presence of a poor vocabulary, perhaps a generation gap. I enriched mine as a child when I used to read many books, no television. As kids we enriched our imagination playing with few toys and our imagination.

With television programs being the great equalizer of language, with mass production of toys, and ad slogans - people can communicate with fewer words that were needed, say, during the 40. We once watched a program about Alger Hiss and we marveled at the rich vocabulary that was used by all the characters; that very few politicians would use today. Or, if one of them does use it, like Kerry, he loses his audience.

Manuals used to be written at 8th grade level, today they are at 6th.

express emotion which might be better challenged into more thoughtful prose.

More appropriate language should be used for the sake of civility and thoughfulness and not just thrown out there contruction workers on the job. "What others might think" is not a very good reason. "Because this is a civilized forum of educated and thoughtful individuals" is a better one.

Sometimes it is hard to take an opinion seriously when the author insists on cursing like a sailor.

They're not allowed to use profanity, but their site is filled with the most vile, offensive shit ever.

Also, you do realize that everytime someone starts a language thread it just turns into a big funny fuck fest, right?

:hi:

They are idiots and need an education.

The BFEE on the other hand is what worries me. Nobody wants to feel the wrath of the crime family.

Hi Agent Mike! :hi:
Freepers :rofl:

DU :yourock:

that is used so freely here.

Fiddlesticking instead of f**king. Sounds better. Let's start a new trend here.

I wish that everyone would use the spell check function. It's quick; it's easy and you get a gold star every time it doesn't catch anything. Nothing screams FREEPER to me more than poor spelling.

There are even posters here who seem proud of their incredibly poor English skills.

the word "fuck." I hate it when posters use "fast typing" as an excuse to have a barely readable post that's riddled with errors. It also reflects far more negatively upon their intelligence than some profanity.

I own both volumes of the "Shakespeare Lexicon." It catalogs every word used by Shakespeare and the context in which it was used. Also, I go to poetry events for fun. I have the full four day pass to the upcoming Dodge Poetry Festival.

Isn't that GRATE???

Swearing in every post is juvenile and it detacts from intellectual or at least well reasoned content

I have no real objection to obscenity I just want stimulating conten. It is tedious and sophomoric in my mind.

I thought there was a rule about obscenity in OPs and OP Subject lines?

We are to the middle exactly what Freep is to the middle. We're like leftwingtrons and they're like rightwingtrons and teh intarweb is like a huge magnetic tube where we collide. Scientists study this shit.

:rofl: Hell Yeah! :P

We are so totally the fringe:

1. we have people here who, at least intellectually, support Hezbollah and Hamas
2. we have people here, a vast majority so it seems, who think that Bush planned 9/11
3. we have people here who supported CMcK in last week's primary

I might not buy any of those things, but I'm a huge supporter of taxing the snot out of the rich, nationalizing big businesses and waving the Cuban flag. And I'd say at least 80% of us hold a radical view on one or more items from a standard progressive agenda. Remember also that the baseline progressive agenda would be considered pretty extreme by the majority of Americans.

I'm okay with this, but to try to deny it is a little silly. We are what we are.

I hate Hamas and Hezbollah, but there are people here who *do* support them.

I'm definitely left-wing (not a "leftwingtron" though, because that just sounds fucking stupid) but there moderates among us. I've also been around DU since 2001, so I'm aware of the full spectrum of DUers.

I'm not denying anything, nor am I being silly. I'm merely stating that DU has a broader political spectrum, than you realize.

As for being "totally the fringe:"

1. I think the vast majority of DUers support ending the slaughter of the Lebanese people, which is different than supporting Hezbollah and Hamas.
2. If you think the "a vast majority" of DUers think Bush planned 9/11, then you're probably hanging out in the dungeon too much. Most of us subsribe to the LIHOP theory, not the MIHOP theory. Also, LIHOP is pretty mainstream at this point.
3. Yes, there were DUers supporting CMcK, but there were also DUers supporting Hank Johnson.

I don't think that we are far more radical than a standard progressive agenda. I also don't believe that the majority of Americans consider a baseline progressive agenda extreme, especially with the way the government is currently being run. People are waking up.

1. you just wrote that "most of us" subscribe to LIHOP and yet that little belief got McK killed at the polls. She's basically a hated figure. I wouldn't call that mainstream at all.

2. it was a lame particle physics joke, you know like matter and anti-matter. I'm sorry.

mainstream in the northeast. Also, McKinney has done and said a lot of ridiculous things that would cause her to very rightfully be killed at the polls. I wouldn't blame it all on LIHOP, which is one of the least outlandish things she has said.

This link will provide you with plenty of reasons McKinney rightfully lost:
http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/politics/2006/08/09/mckinney_2/index.html

and we don't discriminate against them.

Newsflash, moderate America is the silent majority, and they/we are finally starting to wake up. Paint yourself however you wish... but, hey "leftwingtron" would look pretty good on a tshirt. :hi:

1. most people just dont want random slaughter of civilians in lebanon

2. some people believe 9/11 would have been preventable if Bush paid attention to info from FBI/CIA.. most people think the bigger tragedy is how he created more terrorists by attacking iraq when iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and he knew that

what you mean we?

But, he knew about it and did nothing to prevent it.

"OH NO! Skeletor and Leftwingtron have joined forces to take over the world! Can He-Man stop them in time???

TUNE IN TO FIND OUT!!!"

I bet He-Man could do it by teaming up with She-Ra, Princess of Power!

Didn't Ted Stevens teach you anything?

:spray:

come on now.

and maybe I shouldn't say this, but I think that expletives have a place in writen and spoken word. However, they ought to be used sparingly. An occasional four letter word can be quite effective in expressing emotion. Used too often, however, it begins to come off as something less than thoughtful.

I want my kiddo to be fully engaged in the process but I don't want her to feellike she has to to curse like a sailor to fit in.

have won.

which is more obscene?

I get as angry over Freeper actions as anyone else here.But an example.
OUr favorite news source is the "Nation." They are not prone to abusive language, but where they feel it adds expression they might allow the f word. I have no problem with that. They use it rarely.
But, my point. We give subscriptions to the Nation away as gifts. We have Even to city libraries, we feel it such an in depth source of alternative information. But, that ocassional f. word they allow, might it get them banned from say some school libraries.
I hope that not the case.
My concern is not my offense at such language, but a strategy to further our views. Even, though I sort of resent trolling freepers from inhabiting our private world. They have no need to be here.

I don't think so.

do a good job of allowing free expression, while reining in the few posters who use really offensive, derogatory terms and phrases, such as those that are demeaning to women or certain cultures or ethnicities.

We are all so f%#*ing frustrated and angry. We should have the option of using colorful language, on occasion. MKJ

How's that?

then their opinion doesn't matter much to me anyway.

worry about the impression we make on the Freepers because I think they've already made up their minds and aren't likely to change. There have been posts, however, that have so much profanity that it actually clouds the message the poster was trying to make.

from. We have no problem with the slaughter of tens of thousands of Muslims for being Muslims, but saying Fuck is an abomination. I'll bet God is swearing His head off at us for treating His creations like shit. Americans are really screwed up!

Now I think I will go over there and check to see if they copy my post. :)

In the US presentation is so important. Substance has short sway to so many voters, who have no time for detail.
So my point. I do not care how we offend freepers who stray here; but that take our rants and distort them to a potentially neutral public and try to condemn us with our own words. I have seen it done.
Just asking.

i wish to christ people were more angry. everyone should be screaming obscenties at the top of their lungs.

:rofl:

That's not why we are here, to get their approval. If they are so interested in what we are saying here, maybe they will learn something. This is why I make it a point to never go to their site.

I fucking don't.

Redstone

It matters if we want DU to be a source for outsiders..if we want to see DU as a "go-to" on CNN or MSNBC...or if we fear recommending it to our straight-laced friends (I rarely recommend anymore)...and it doesn't matter because people with passion sometimes use "salty" language ..

I don't usually curse, but sometimes very well could. The war we are in is the Freepers taking away our freedoms and subjecting us to slavery.

So why should their opinion matter?