One of the things you are supposed to learn on the way to adulthood is how to speak. This includes excluding grammatically incorrect speech such as "me and my brother," but also the use of expletives in everyday life. Unfortunately, the Nutroots Nation crowd hasn't gotten past the id stage yet. Hence, you get panels like this one, featuring Amanda Marcotte, who certainly knows all about not being able to control her id:
One of the great debates of blogging is the general rudeness and shrillness acceptable within the discourse. Does profanity exempt you from being taken seriously? Are you necessarily “calmer” because you don’t drop a few four-letter words? We’ll discuss the tone and attitude of various pockets of bloggers, and also why, no matter what, Michelle Malkin is still worse.
PANELISTS: Jesse Taylor, Amanda Marcotte, Lee Papa, Duncan Black, Kevin Drum, “Digby” Parton
I like the fact that liberals actually need a panel to discuss why vulgarity tends to make adults dismiss what you are saying. I mean, if they want to sit around their beer can-strewn apartments eating Fritos, playing Rock Band and dropping f-bombs all over, that's their business. But adults recognize that social discourse means not letting language get in the way of what you are trying to say. It also means that being rude, a mandatory behavior on Pandagon, tends to prevent people from agreeing with you or coming to your way of thinking.
But let's be honest about the level of discourse available on such sites. These aren't world-class thinkers we're talking about and they aren't directing their verbage at readers interested in thought-provoking comment. It's the equivalent of the spit pit from middle school. Which explains why they need a panel discussion on vulgarities.
UPDATE: The staid New York Times actually tried to cover this thing seriously.
UPDATEx2: Dana has a terrific post on the whole kerfuffle.
UPDATEx3: So much for those evil rightwingers controlling the traditional media.
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