I think it’s funny (ha) that America chooses to be more offended over the words “fuck”, “goddamn” & “cunt” than we are with our faltering eco-system, rampant national divide, our questionable for-profit healthcare, and lack of workplace sick days and vacation time.
I mean, doesn’t anyone care that you are enslaved to a job you hate simply because it provides decent healthcare and you’ve no freedom to move about and find something better…or you lose the coverage you and your family depend upon?
Or the fact that our coverage and prices from one person to the next…one hospital to the next…is so varied? This is all completely ridiculous. It’s FUCKED UP. An MRI should be a certain price, no matter WHERE you get it. You, the kid in college, and the guy down the street should have the same decent coverage. This isn’t a socialist or entitlement thing. It’s a basic human right. How the fuck are we supposed to be happy and productive if we or someone in our family isn’t well? Or we’re fighting medical bills and arguing with insurance companies to cover payments, driving great distances to find an “in-network” doctor? It’s stupid. You cannot.
Yet we accept this as if we’re all children of alcoholics…afraid to speak up, terrified of confrontation, being beaten, knowing that deep down that we don’t deserve better. Knowing we don’t deserve what everyone else has access to. Being told we’re “the best in the world” by our abusive parents and how everyone else is awful on the rare moment they’re sober – to the point where we actually believe it as God-delivered truth rather than venturing beyond these borders on something other than a coddled cruise to a resort in order to find out on our own how this big world actually works. What we do and do not have. How we hold up against other industrialized nations.
It’s not always good.
But we have a shitton of yogurt flavors and cereal to choose from…more than anyone else. We are the best at having too much choice in bullshit-laden food (food that’s banned from other countries because it’s considered toxic, mind you) that creates the disease in our for-profit healthcare, which grew 4.6% to 3.8 trillion in 2019. It’s a top GDP earner in America. Disease…Made In America. There’s that.
By comparison, Switzerland, a brutally expensive country with one of the best healthcare systems, spends about 40% less per capita.
Additionally, some REAL “bad words”: Divorce, Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Abuse, Addiction, Anxiety, Alzheimer’s, Homelessness, CANCER.
When someone tells you to go fuck yourself, nothing happens.
When someone tells you that you have cancer, or they want a divorce, your entire world crumbles.
Our priorities are……………………………..interesting.
What’s even more ironic? Repeated studies prove that swearing is:
a) Not a sign of unintelligence. Quite the opposite.
b) Those who swear are far more honest. They aren’t censoring what they say.
On that note, I highly recommend watching The History of Swearing with Nicolas Cage on Netflix. Good stuff.
Random observations. Just think about it.
All change comes from people, not governments. We decide.
-April
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Putting The Clothes On, Taking The Gloves Off. 
So my contribution to the discussion is this NSFW: https://youtu.be/RYGy-j_oH5Q Personal aside: When I was in Britain, I worked for Borders Books and Music. The American chain had tried to expand into Canada, was rebuffed, and so opened across the pond. It takes a looooong time to set up a store, so we were busy as Hell for weeks. One day, someone put this (well-known) recording on the PA system. The manager, a transplanted American, hit the roof. (Just as she did when she found out that the trades labourers working for Borders were having a pint on their lunch break at the pub next door.) Naturally, she had to be told ‘You’re not in Kansas anymore, ma’am.’ And the entertainment continued, unabated. P.S. Great post. Although I was saddened by its length. Ask me some time what Tori Amos once said to me on BBC Radio 2 on this subject. The shortness of things, that is.
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You’re one of the few who will actually read the long posts! 🙂
Yeah…I’m laughing…gotta respect the culture. I was surprised to learn that German school kids were served beer when I was over there. Or that French kids don’t get “kid foods”…they eat what the adults eat. Some places just do things differently. Better.
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