“There are some people that aren’t into all the words. There are some that would have you not use certain words. Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language and there are 7 of them that you can’t say on television. What a ratio that is! 399,993 to 7. They must really be bad. They’d have to be outrageous to be separated from a group that large.”
—George Carlin, The Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on Television, 1972
“In December, at the height of the #metoo movement, a 30-year-old feminist with an art history degree … began a petition that garnered thousands of responses and made headlines in the New York Times. Her request? That the Metropolitan Museum of Art should warn its viewers about the dangers of looking at art.”
—Bari Weiss, The New Seven Dirty Words
“Democracy demands that we’re able also to get inside the reality of people who are different than us so we can understand their point of view. Maybe we can change their minds, but maybe they’ll change ours. And you can’t do this if you just out of hand disregard what your opponents have to say from the start. And you can’t do it if you insist that those who aren’t like you – because they’re white, or because they’re male – that somehow there’s no way they can understand what I’m feeling, that somehow they lack standing to speak on certain matters.”
—Barack Obama, on identity politics, South Africa speech 17 July 2018
“We’re living increasingly in a culture in which the mere suggestion of listening – and hearing the other side – implies complicity in some malevolent enterprise.”
—Bari Weiss
“The main effect is that these endless accusations of fascism, of misogyny, of racism, of alt-right, dull the effects of the words themselves. As they are stripped of meaning, they strip us … of our ability to react forcefully to real fascists, to real misogynists, and real members of the alt-right.”
—Bari Weiss
“Knowing that the morality of 2018 isn’t the endpoint of history should inform the way we view those that came before us.”
—Bari Weiss
“Please watch. It’ll make you feel hopeful while still grounded in reality and humanity.”
—Kelly Carlin
Just a few quotes to start off.
The Balthus art discourse reminded me of not only the art disclaimer at the bottom of this page (go look) – and not only the levels of discussion that can and should happen regarding not just art history, but life and who we are socially – BUT also of students who’ve questioned my academic discussion topics in the classroom (I do NOT shy away from ANY topic) as well as the PANIC that followed a repost of a stupid microwave meme on our Facebook page.
Whew. Long sentence.
Humans have the capacity to hold divergent thoughts in their head. To think for themselves. To make mistakes and learn from them. To draw powerful conclusions that are not based on trends, wat we must hate (all Americans have a list, no?) and wat’s trending this week. We need to get back to this. We need to get back to reasoning. And stop getting stuck in the swamp.
Bari Weiss’ introduction of The New Seven Dirty Words (below) is not a sound byte. It’s really long, but really worth it. Turn on the audio, take notes.
*There’ll be a quiz later.
*Quiz will show up in Real Life as do most educational things we tend to overlook.
—steve mehallo
Flommist Steve Mehallo is a graphic designer, illustrator, font designer, educator, foodie and gadfly. He is the creator and founder of FLOMM! Thanks to Kelly Carlin for sharing. Foto source.
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