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George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

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Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#111

Post by Jensson »

ethanbond wrote: post #105
imgabe wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For literally thousands of years humans personally slaughtered animals and had no problem with it. But you assume people wouldn’t do this without some fanciful words for it. Based on what? Wishful thinking?

The emotions one feels watching a video of a factory farm are very, very different from what one feels watching a family raise some livestock and then kill them. They’re obviously not the same thing. During those thousands of years where humans personally slaughtered animals, they often built complete philosophies around their relationship to those animals. Those philosophies are way, way more complex and personally…

> The emotions one feels watching a video of a factory farm are very, very different from what one feels watching a family raise some livestock and then kill them

Is this really true? People who kill animals for a living doesn't have any emotions about it, watching them do it is like watching them cut a tomato.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#112

Post by js2 »

LinuxBender wrote: post #54
hfuyf65 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not yet, but if you watch early Carlin it is the same pattern: 1. initially safe,sanitized corporate friendly jokes 2. some commercial success 3. ? 4. jokes increasingly become a social commentary and are less and less 'friendly'

I remember early Carlin and he pushed the legal limits of radio and TV broadcast from the start. AFAIK he was also the first to cross the lines with the "7 words" one can not say on that industry. He was always providing commentary on society but what I noticed was that his views got darker and more jaded with time. He started off using his knowledge of language to be rebellious and edgy, then delving more into self…

No one ever seems to remember Lenny Bruce. Lenny Bruce was in the same league as Carlin. Carlin's seven dirty words was straight from one of Bruce's routines.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#113

Post by dijit »

donatj wrote: post #100

I saw a conversation on Twitter a while ago back when it still was Twitter. The OP with many followers was laying out words and classes of words with negative connotations that shouldn't be used. Someone replied in good faith to OP and asked how we should express negative thoughts. OPs answer was basically that we shouldn't. I find that kind of thought very off putting and minorly disturbing. An important part of the…

Such language policing is double-plus-ungood.

(For those that haven’t read the classic Nineteen-eighty-four book by Eric Arthur Blair (pen name: George Orwell) one of the core themes of the story is how the ruling party controlled language, calling it “newspeak”, in order to remove the ability to express certain thoughts or opinions, most notably those that could be used to incite revolution or allow you to express discontent.)

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#114

Post by [deleted] »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #101
jacquesm wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The better stand-up comedians are hard to distinguish from philosophers. Carlin is right up there. It's a pity he's gone, we kind of need him right now.

Sort of agree. I'm a contrarian though that feels like Carlin got less funny the older and angrier he got. His cynicism was beautiful, but he seemed to dropped using humor to deliver it toward the end.

[deleted]

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#115

Post by Waterluvian »

donatj wrote: post #100

I saw a conversation on Twitter a while ago back when it still was Twitter. The OP with many followers was laying out words and classes of words with negative connotations that shouldn't be used. Someone replied in good faith to OP and asked how we should express negative thoughts. OPs answer was basically that we shouldn't. I find that kind of thought very off putting and minorly disturbing. An important part of the…

Something I was rather ignorant to for the longest time was how fascism can exist at both ends of the spectrum.

My last day on Mastodon was the day a few people ganged up on me quite aggressively for not putting Alt text in an image.

Tolerance isn’t acceptance. It’s letting things you don’t like exist without making a big fuss over it. You can dislike certain speech patterns without having to go on a crusade against them.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#116

Post by plutokras »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #39
mrtksn wrote: post #17

>"Americans have trouble facing the truth," Carlin said. "So they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it" It is useful and not limited to Americans, that's why people do it. Much more people would have been vegans or they would be much more indifferent to violence if every pack of meat had a QR code to a video showing the life and processing of that particular animal. It's also not just soften…

> Much more people would have been vegans or they would be much more indifferent to violence if every pack of meat had a QR code to a video showing the life and processing of that particular animal. I think more people would be pushing for animal welfare and proper slaughtering/raising conditions if this was done, even if they still ate meat.

> I think more people would be pushing for animal welfare and proper slaughtering/raising conditions if this was done, even if they still ate meat.

Why does animal welfare matter if at the end they will end up as food anyway? Not trolling, I legitimately want to understand.

From my point of view, livestock is just food, that happens to be in a temporary living state, before being ultimately eaten. As an end consumer, I don't see how this would change anything – besides potentially pushing up the price. I just want to pick up the meat at the store for the best possible price.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#118

Post by phaedrus441 »

streakfix wrote: post #117

A lot of the points he made are wrong. Shell shock is physical damage to the grey matter of the brain, caused by an explosion. PTSD is mostly psychological and can be caused by shell shock.

I think you are mistaken: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock

"Shell shock is a word that originated during World War I to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that many soldiers experienced during the war, before PTSD was officially recognized."

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#119

Post by kerbs »

streakfix wrote: post #117

A lot of the points he made are wrong. Shell shock is physical damage to the grey matter of the brain, caused by an explosion. PTSD is mostly psychological and can be caused by shell shock.

A cursory Google search on Shell Shock doesn’t resonate with this statement.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#120

Post by ghostpepper »

jacquesm wrote: post #83
hfuyf65 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not yet, but if you watch early Carlin it is the same pattern: 1. initially safe,sanitized corporate friendly jokes 2. some commercial success 3. ? 4. jokes increasingly become a social commentary and are less and less 'friendly'

Carlin and safe, sanitized corporate friendly jokes never happened. If anything he became less intentionally rude over time.

Isn’t that how he started, before the hippy dippy weatherman?
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