Comments on: Another Bill O’Reilly SNAFU: Or, Why the Social Right Can’t Win the Vulgarity War

By: Garrett

Garrett — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:41:14 +0000

“Let’s face it. O’Reilly, Chavez, Bill Bennett, George Will, Shawn Hannity, John Gibson, Glenn Beck, Chuck Colson, Phyllis Schlafly and the like are a dull and prissy lot of square stiffs.”

Does anyone honestly believe that Bill “phone sex” O’Reilly and some of the others mentioned care about this issue of vulgarity? That, along with other aspects of the so-called “culture war,” is nothing more than a distraction. It’s all part of the divide and conquer strategy.

By: hp

hp — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:56:21 +0000

I like guys like Joe and Fred Reed. Literate men of experience(s) and sense, combined with humor and realistic expectations. To pin a label on them is like trying to train a cat.
Perhaps it’s just best to take advantage of their gifts of Americana and leave it at that.

By: HR

HR — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:32:28 +0000

Gregory Paul, you’re welcome to your opinion, but I’m sticking to mine regarding Joe Bageant being part of the liberal elite. Making a few bucks on a book does not make one part of that group.

By: Hue Longer

Hue Longer — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:22:19 +0000

Gregory,

It seemed a blast, but I wasn’t sure (not that I care deeply)–that’s why the (?). I know JB would have seen it that way however offended he may or may not have been. It’s what threw me off because any reader of his would not have said it unless they were aiming at him in fun or spite. No big deal, and no offense.

Cheers

By: Gregory Paul

Gregory Paul — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:13:53 +0000

Pertaining to Longer’s comment, how anyone could mistake my reference to the profanity of Joe Bageant’s writings as being a criticism escapes me. Although I disagree with some particulars about his broader conclusions concerning American society, I enjoy his essays. In part because his is not, like many conservatives, hypocritical about using vulgarity. And Joe is a member of the liberal elite in that he is no conservative, and he has a level of publicity and influence few in the working class enjoy. And that too, is not a criticism — JB makes an important contribution to the American discourse.

By: Hue Longer

Hue Longer — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:31:28 +0000

The strange blast (?) at Joe Bageant made it hard to read and pay attention to the whole piece , but I did. I think I’m now ready to read, “The Unpublished Works of Lloyd Rowsey”

By: HR

HR — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:26:07 +0000

Joe Bageant a liberal elite? I’m sure he’s having a good laugh over that one.

George Collin? Perhaps the author refers to George Carlin?

Darwinian competition? Maybe the author means Social Darwinian, since what he describes has nothing whatever to do with evolutionary theory.

I find this article a little pathetic.

By: Gregory Paul

Gregory Paul — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:46:45 +0000

Concerning Kenny’s comment, he is entirely correct that the Catholic O’Reilly is not born again, but incorrect that I said he was. The person who is newly devout is Jane Fonda, who a few years ago said she has become a born-again Christian, albeit of the liberal sort one presumes.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:20:20 +0000

I stand corrected, Maxwell, and I knew but mis-remembered that fact. I am presently looking to relocate from northern California to Lexington, VA or the environs thereof, home of Washington & Lee University and Virginia Military Institute, from which institution RL Lee called Stonewall Jackson to serve the Cause. Perhaps you and Joe are well aware of that piece of Virginia’s glorious past.

By: hp

hp — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:01:34 +0000

The ’sticks and stones’ words are considered far more trenchant and profane than any common ‘dirty’ words and the users of such are accorded castigation and condemnation the likes of which never washes off.
Eternal damnation, if you will.
Go figure..

By: Maxwell Black

Maxwell Black — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:44:18 +0000

Bageant is from Winchester VA not NC btw.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:20:45 +0000

Oh, yeah, cusswords? They might bother some 60-year old Harvard grad, but their recent spate is just further evidence of how trivial our rulers consider re-emergences of sixties-seventies consciousnesses to be.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:16:22 +0000

evie. I haven’t read the “real article” but I couldn’t have commented better!!

NOW! I’ve skimmed it. DV allows open cursing. (It’s open minds they have trouble with.)

Joe Bageant, D.R.? I’m not going to skim this article again. Joe wrote “Deer Hunting with Jesus” and is a returned-again, educated white trash guy from North Carolina, with a sense of history so limited that he seems not to understand: poor whites in the south prove their superiority to AA’s by out-suffering them (in their own minds) and have been doing it since Reconstruction Days, at least; then they can call them lazy, welfare cheats, etc. Instead, Joe advances the novel theory that po’or whites in his old town in NC resent everyone with a lot of education, and that’s why they intend to vote right wingnut for the rest of their lives.

By: wfkendig

wfkendig — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:01:03 +0000

I don’t see this as a liberal or conservative issue. This is just a personal choice about how you want to communicate with others. The occasional curse word may intone greater emphasis, importance or passion. The thoughtless and endless stream of profanity adds nothing to the discussion. I am by no means a prude, but I find myself cringing as I watch T.V. Sometimes I find that it takes away value from the discussion. I do not believe in censorship, but I do believe in personal discretion shaped by maturity and social norms. It’s how we all get along. Having said this, I can always vote with my remote control.

P.S. Ann Coulter is unhip. She is a vulgar person, whether or not she uses profanity. Using profanity does not change that fact or improve her status. In fact, it just makes her that much more odious.

By: Arch Stanton

Arch Stanton — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:12:54 +0000

Some good analysis about the cultural drift of “dirty” words, but yielding to “cultural critics” such as Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter does not bode well. Despite the inordinately large amount of “mainstream” media time devoted to both, the fact is that they are are hebephrenic smarm peddlers. To even to listen to them (let alone attempt a critique/rebuttal) is an exercise in stupid futility. Think Progress wastes its precious web space on such drivel. I advise Dissident Voice to take the high road.

By: Maxwell Black

Maxwell Black — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:17:59 +0000

Joe Bageant is a member of the liberal elite?

By: D.R. Munro

D.R. Munro — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:12:05 +0000

Last time I checked, swears were just words.

By: Jason Mallet

Jason Mallet — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:12:01 +0000

This reminds me of an Offspring song, of which the best part goes:

“Drivers are rude, such attitudes,
but when I show my piece, complaints cease.
Something’s odd, feel like I’m God,
you stupid dumbshit goddamn motherfuckers!”

That last line describes the CUNT Bill O’Reilly. Dumbfuckistan, indeed.

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:06:46 +0000

Small point of accuracy: a Catholic cannot be a born-again Christian. The latter term is used only in regard to certain fundamentalist Protestants and even then, hardly at all outside the US. O’Reilly may well be a turncoat Catholic who has sold the Church out to the “born-agains” and many Catholics might be quite happy to see him go over to them, but as long as he remains within the Catholic Church, he cannot be described as a born-agian Christian.

By: evie

evie — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:50:38 +0000

So progressives have won the vulgarity war?

I remember as children we would go to the woods or barnyard and yell every curse word we knew. It was crude and childish behavior but we felt so grown-up sharing profanities. I guess it signals most dumbass shithead motherfuckin Americans have grown up …