Seriously!
I don’t care and you should be open about things. You might even be accurate in your hateful wailing.

I’m definitely in favour of freedom of speech because I think it means something that many other true believers apparently do not, and I am not specifically referencing the United States of America here; many of us have the freedom to say whatever we please and with luck a bit of common sense will remind us of the situations where it is just better to bite tongue. This sort of free market for opinions is something not everyone has, of course and with that in mind I would like to address the topic of those people amongst us who either do not respect the concept of free speech or think it only applies when they are in agreement.

It would seem that such feeble minds are harmless; why should we worry about some soft-minded nag who yelps at use of a word on their moral black list? Because it can lead to justification, and the actions of people who are so scared of something as wonderful as language are not going to be rational. Take a look at radical Islamists today, who show the same sort of animalistic behaviour of the Christians over several centuries of crusades, just because other people are not accepting of their sociopathic fever-dream stories. These people in particular are probably only going to react like a drugged up clown if you use the wrong words in conversation with them, but later on they may be “educating” children by chaining them up and beating them for the same crimes, and guess what those kids grow up to be like.

There is of course an entire topic about “curse words” but this is not supposed to be a topical history lesson – as we move on, so must our language. Roots remain but implementation is defined by the era and cultural use. Very few people are concerned by the origin of a word that upsets them but the problem is: nor are they upset by the intent. Simply the sound of the word has become the problem and the words themselves are seen as wrong. Yes – people are going crazy over sounds.

Intonation alone is often a clear marker of intent, even to simple minds and the literal definition of the words used may be only casually connected. A belted out ”Alright cunt, you good?” should worry you less than a stone faced ”I’m gonna top you in a minute” because the words do not carry the brunt of the message, the voice does.

You know when a person speaking another language is being sarcastic, jovial or aggressive so long as they are not actively trying to hide their intent. Even a cat gets the gist of a situation based on the voice. Are you insulted when a person speaking a foreign language calls you a foul name in their native lingo? Probably not, probably you did not notice.

So why is it still accepted that some words are not allowed, depending on the people listening? This is not rational behaviour for an intelligent being.

Many agree that the world has an abundance of problems that need to be solved for us to all move on as a species, however some believe that the best way to fix the things they deem problematic is to restrict the words available to other people. That if they can enforce their worldview onto others by censorship that the rest will fall into place. These people are what I like to call fucking pissants. And they in turn think I am part of the problem because of the choice of words I used rather than the condescending tone or the hate behind my name-calling. Well excuse me but if abstracts are to be the issue here then I’ll have you know that I happen to be offended by blue, you god damn retard. Uh-oh, did I say that?

Retard. A word that a particular group of people demand be taken out of “derogatory” use by the uncaring non-gimps of the world.

The single best reason to contemplate my word use that I can come up with is to stop being such a dick to people who do not deserve to have my foul personality inflicted upon them. The choice of words I use is not so much the problem but the relentless bad moods and scathing monologues are. My reason for choosing to watch my mouth is that I could be more polite, not that I should be equally as rude with more acceptable words.

The R-Word Pledge is a campaign backed by the Special Olympics is the topic and although I understand the fundamental intention, their website has not done much to suggest that it would be nice if people stopped being nasty to each-other out of petty spite and ill humor. They are very specific about the word retard and nothing else. This to me makes them an open target for criticism because basic human decency is not the clear agenda, they are blaming a word for the hurt mentally challenged people may feel when they are put own by others. Would it not be wiser to try to help these people understand that the world is not as happy as they might like, and that people like me are not worth being upset about? No, apparently not, their best solution is to try to force everyone else to drop the use of one word.

As ever is the case, such uproar is coming not from those affected so much as those people who live with them. People who should know better than to take offence on behalf of others. So in this case the pledge does not appear to be run by people who are themselves mentally retarded, but from their work you would be hard pressed to believe it.

If you read the list of pledges about how wonderful the world is going to be once the word retard has been banished from our vocabulary, you could be forgiven for thinking it is not the actual abuse that is the problem and that it is actually acceptable to keep calling the gimps other things instead – things like large-faced gayqueers or thick darko communist Jew-bags – but not retards. Because that’s what they are and it’s not a bad thing. Apparently.

The pledge campaign web page is aching with comments from basically well-meaning people who have some incredibly poorly chosen reasons as to why they have personally promised to stop calling people retards in anything other than a factual manner. It’s not that I disrespect the gesture so much as it is sort of hard to discern those who perhaps understand the over-arching ideal of a friendlier future from those whose lives are directly influenced by retarded people and are enacting the too-typical reaction to something that bothers them more than other people by demanding it be put to an end – very much like religious lunatics and those who think cunt is a word that will cause the end of the world.

I’m a cruel and cynical person by nature – but not a thoughtless one, so when I react to something in a demeaning and critical manner it usually stems from analysis of the actual situation in the context of intent. As I understand it, the pledge is supposed to help promote a more caring society where everyone has a place, and I fully endorse that. The problem is that the execution on this one is retarded.

Here is a selection of comments in unedited form from the pledge list. No specific criteria was required to pick them because they were almost universally poorly conceived and the result is both despair for our future and hilarity due to the inane reasoning.

Let’s get to it:

”These indivuduals don’t know how to hate because of your colour or beliefs. We could all learn something from them.”

Was the irony intentional? Of course! ”If only there was some way we could all be too thick to be capable of discrimination!” I exclaimed to my monitor, like a retard. Because no, there is nothing to be learnt there. The comment was partially accurate in saying that they simply do not know how to hate. Not knowing how to choke a bitch is entirely different from not choking a bitch despite knowing how. The latter is self-control.

Hate is the problem, not the capacity for it. All of us who are not overburdened with copies of the twenty first chromosome are capable of hate, cruelty and all manner of terrible things but what matters is when we use our capability to control that capacity. Lacking the capacity is far from innocence.

NEXT!

”I pledge and support the movement to stop the use of the r-word in everyday insults and conversation”

Said some chimp, entirely oblivious to the ideals of the pledge. Limiting his vocabulary for insulting others is not useful to anyone, it makes his slander boring and repetitive. While he clearly intends to continue “insulting people in every day conversation” he will valiantly use one word less. Retard. Yeah! Retard! Because that is something a retard might say!

MORE!

”If we all tell 10 people to stop using this word, and they pledge and tell 10 more people, we will have this around the world in a short time, and we will ALL stop using it and start encouraging one another!”

Honestly, must we really get the Mongolians to join in? They have problems enough being called Mongoloids as it is. And more to the point if we have really found the absolute conduit to spreading concepts globally could we not perhaps start with something a bit more useful, like stop murdering each-other? I imagine even a retard would agree with me there. Some people just miss the most simple things in their balloon-faced attempts to spread the love.

Pulling the proverbial ”I have black friends!” card here, it might be hard to believe I have had retarded and handicapped friends, although as with most people over time I have since lost contact. I have always refused to treat them differently to anyone else and this is something that will never change. Every person is on the same level in my mind; everyone dealt with the same damn way. No exceptions for anyone aside those I deem my enemy. And here we come back to freedom of speech: it is fully acceptable to have opinions that are counter to how you behave so long as you do not try to enforce those opinions or behaviours on other, unwilling people.

Spite is part of our nature as has been shown in research with primates. It will not go away and there is little reason to wish it to. We are the sum of all that makes us, after-all. That a person can be openly vicious does not prevent them from being polite and courteous to strangers, as most of us are capable of controlling our behaviour to suit the situation.

This pathetic desire some people have to try to forcefully limit everyone else to accommodate their simple and fragile ego is more damaging to our society than the generally harmless rudeness of others. Yes, it would be nicer if people stopped being needlessly inconsiderate of those around them – but censorship is not the solution. Censorship is the belief that forcefully hiding a problem makes it go away. It is the solution of retards, fools and cowards.

This document is a collection of words assembled by an openly nasty mind, up for all to see should they wish – and aside from garnering disapproval, agreement or whatever else, it will hurt no one. Conversely here is an example of how attempts at censorship effect the world negatively, also from the pledge comments:

”I have fought against the use of this word ALL my life. In high school I walked out and refused to play basketball (first line varsity) because my coach used this word and refused to apologize. I never played on a team again. Proud we are taking a stand.”

Although generally harmless this is the same sort of thinking that allows crazy religious scumbags or animal rights wackos to justify taking action against those they are offended by. Except those fucking crack-pots do so with violence and the result is so very much worse, while history shows nothing gets solved. This retard proudly put their team at a disadvantage because of the stubborn nature of one insignificant man. They chose to inconvenience a team of people – some of which may even have agreed with their sentiment – and yet changed nothing. Well done, that person – the obstinate, self-righteous dunce.

The world we live in has many problems which we could potentially solve if the majority really cared to, but that is rarely the case. For the time being, I think we can start improving matters by trying to be less aggressive toward those we do not get along with. The next step would be to stop accommodating those fragile-minded wastrels amongst us who try to drag everyone down to their sniveling level of religious cowardice and fear of words.

I say be scared of that which deserves to be feared – intent. At least some of the other bits will follow.