The terrible Odessa-Midland mass shooting over the weekend has predictably led to Democrats to make new bids for political hay, with many calling for more gun grabs, something which wouldn't have stopped the criminal in this instance because he didn't bother about legally owning his gun.
But one thing stands out that's getting even more tiresome than that: Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke's reflexive use of foul language in his public statements. Here is what he tweeted for all to see:
We don't know how many have been killed. We don't know the motivation. But here's what we do know: This is fucked up.
28.4K people are talking about this
Then he went on to spew the F-word on national television:
Way to expose the kids, Beto.
Now, there's no need to be a prude about the use of the f-word on all occasions. Sometimes the use of the f-word as an intensifier is acceptable, within certain well-defined contexts.
If a first-responder in an emergency, for example, or a military man in combat, or a firefighter fighting a monster wildfire, or an airline pilot in distress, uses that word, nobody considers that a problem. If a thug or a rabid leftist uses it, it's not good, but it's perfectly par for the course because it's expected. If a computer hacker uses it, O.K., because some of those people talk like that all the time (and Beto is a hacker whose f-bombs were nothing compared to his hacker record as a repulsive poet). If a writer for The Atlantic or some other high-quality literary organ uses the word, fine, so long it's within a carefully chosen context of words and their rhythms, precisely and sparingly used. Sometimes even a politican can use it, if the intensifier is the only word for to describe the situation or perhaps the word is heard in a private context, such as here, but once again, very sparingly and exceptionally.
But here we have a guy who's on the national stage, presenting himself as presidential material, openly and publicly and copiously using that word, his mouth going like an overflowing toilet. Everything he says gets this particular intensifier - important things, unimportant things, doesn't matter, because the one thing it always gets him is attention, the press coverage he craves. It's also rather elitist, given that broadcasters and anyone in a professional setting is not free to use that kind of language. He knows that and carries on with his barnyard intensifiers anyway, simply because he can. Yet these words are forbidden on family viewing broadcasts for a reason and violators can lose their broadcasting licenses should they fail to heed it, and it's also not used significantly in family newspapers. There's some language that everyone understands is to be used in public, and some that's reserved for private or non-public use, and here Beto is, conflating the two, trying to draw attention to himself based on his abundant use of foul language.
His wholesale employment of the f-word cheapens and coarsens the culture, and amounts to a horrible example to children, too, who repeat everything. That's why many voters and viewers tune out of television -- to protect the kids -- and certainly why some will tune out to him. Who wants to listen to this verbal sewage? Why should unsuspecting and unwilling people be subject to it? It's an ego thing that Beto keeps throwing it out at people without any reserve in a falsely understood effort to 'relate.'
He doesn't relate. He just sets his ego in motion. In the context of who he is - a non-accomplished former congressman and losing Senate candidate, this can be summarized as his only achievement, his lonely gift to the culture. This is what we know him for and what we will remember him for - his introduction of the 'f-word' into ordinary political discourse. His toilet mouth.
How disgusting.
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