Here’s that f-bomb that just dropped on MSNBC: #iacaucus pic.twitter.com/v4f7dZDPrg
— PolicyMic (@PolicyMic) February 2, 2016
“I haven’t gotten benefits for 3 months.” Forget whatever she said after that. That’s the part we should all be talking about. That’s what should have prompted the gasps of shock and awe. That’s what Brian Williams should have apologized for, live on the air, because that was said by a veteran, in America, and that is far more shocking and appalling than any expletive.
The prudes were falling all over themselves to apologize for her language, though, because what we call a thing is always so much more terrible than the thing itself. It’s why angry busybodies will call up a news org and moan and whine about seeing a dead body on their front page, and forget that BEING ANGRY AND UPSET IS WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO FEEL. You should be angry that the world is this way, and you should use whatever language you can to get the most attention you can for the thing that needs fixing, and anybody who concentrates on your words instead of your reality wasn’t ever gonna help you solve the problem no how.
She hasn’t gotten benefits for 3 months, and she signed up to serve this country. If she didn’t say fuck, that would be the fucked-up part. You don’t pay me for doing my not-at-all-dangerous job for 3 months, I’ll say much worse than fuck.
(An aside: I hate the term “F-bomb.” It sounds like something from a bad American version of a Japanese cartoon show about planes. If you are not on a broadcast network, just say what it is. Everybody knows, especially the kids.)
If apologies are called for, let’s apologize to this woman for the situation we’ve put her in. Let’s apologize for giving her a reward like this for serving her country. Let’s apologize for paying more attention to her when she said fuck than when she was waiting for her paycheck. Let’s apologize for not treating her with the respect she deserves. And then when we’re done apologizing let’s get out there and fucking fix it, so that nobody has to fucking say fuck on the fucking air to get someone to fucking notice that things are fucked up.
A.