Just a Brief Blankety-Blank Note

Talking to a stranger in the video store last week, I was a bit surprised by how he ended our conversation about some movie he asked if I'd seen.

"I'd be afraid to watch that s--t," he said, and slumped off.

I wasn't shocked to learn people speak that way. It's not that I'd never heard the word before. I was taken aback by the casual way he did it.

If I had spoken that way, I would have understood that by doing so I had given him tacit permission to do so as well. But, I hadn't.

The culture had, and any resistance I might have offered would have been futile. Speaking in degraded terms even in public around strangers is now de riguer. Had I objected, I would have been seen as the backward Philistine, because where once it was considered rude to swear, it's now considered suspect, if not outright offensive, to be bothered when someone else does.