Calling a Kid the "C" Word

[llyrnion]

I live in Germany and the history shows that words can lead to deeds. bad deeds.
(...)
the German people were against boycotting Jewish shops and doctors and lawyers because they thought:f** it, that are friends and good people.
5 years of propaganda and anti-jewish laws and exact the same people destroyed shops, raided households and have beaten people to death on the streets or set them on fire (in my home town they killed a young boy and stuffed people in the synagogue and set the building on fire and watch them burn to death while the fire brigade only cared about that the houses of "Aryan" people dind´t ignite.
(...)
so, yeah, words can do harm because they can implant the thought of hate and of superiority and all this bs into peoples minds. it worked. every big outburst of violence had people which initialized hate with words and sentences. and i bet my ass that it works today too...

I understand what you're saying, and I agree about how cynical and jaded we've all become.

But I don't believe words, powerful though they may be, were the main driver in that particular situation. Poverty and hardship, imposed by the totally braindead conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, were the main cause, as it made people much more open to the ideas of whatever opportunistic "Messiah" came along.

Actually, we (Europe) are well on our way of seeing this for ourselves.

 

[Lady Larunai]

From what ive seen in australia it is a pretty common word here, its still classed as the worst swear word but its never really gendered apart from its definition.. Go to the country or arroundthe city in canberra your bound to hear it once a day, i have friends that spout it like water from a tap and on the chance that you see a couples argument from a pair of bogans the word flies around like its a vowel.. And you get the occasional 9 year olds yelling it too over here

 

[CaptainKarma]

Well to sound off for myself, I have lost respect for "The Onion" for backing down and issueing an apology. I'm firmly in the court of those who have been complaining about out of control political correctness here, and feel that anything PC needs to be abolished as it's an affront to free speech as a matter of general principle, especially when it comes to humor.

At the end of the day the point of "The Onion" and other sources like it is that nothing and noone is sacred, your supposed to talk at look at a lot of what they say/post and go "wow, I can't believe they said that" and chuckle because of how wrong it is

Whether or not this girl is 9 years old is irrelvent, she's a public person, and fair game for this kind of thing. What's more I think people complaining about this made it more of a big deal that it ever would have been if they decided to keep their mouthes shut and go after their 5 minutes of fame from liberal trolling. Sure, calling a 9 year old a **** to her face is wrong, but remember this is on a humor website/twitter feed which a 9 year old has no business accessing. Had nobody gone "wow, I can get five minutes of fame by complaining and donning a suit of liberal white knight armor" the odds of her ever even having expected this was said would be pretty much obselete. Anyone looking at "The Onion" enough to follow it's twitter also likewise understands the context.

So you prioritise free speech over not abusing 9 year-olds. Got it.

She's NINE. A damn CHILD. How is she "fair game"?

 

[Lilani]

Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.

I think the fact that you have to ask that is only another sign that this was a terribly executed "joke" to begin with.

I don't know if you read the article, but the reason the Onion said it wasn't because they had witnessed her behavior and decided she was a ****. As Bob said, the Onion was making fun of how critical and negative celebrity media has become. But (as Bob also said) the joke failed in its execution by not separating itself from what it was trying to be a satire of, and by going someplace that dark (using a sexual insult intended to reduce someone to the quality of their genitals on a nine-year-old) without enough context to give it substance. Whether or not she was actually a **** never had anything to do with the Onion's reason for making the comment.

 

[Keith K]

I hadn't had a chance to actually find out what The Onion had said. In finally getting the details, I agree; Reasonable intention, terrible execution.

 

[DugMachine]

Oh goodness. Some people just need to learn to take a joke, no matter how bad it is. If I were The Onion, I'd keep it up there just to let people keep raging. Seriously, OH NO people on the internet are mad! Sky is blue and grass is green, etc.

 

[knight steel]

But don't we call young boys "dickheads" all the time yet **** is unacceptable?
Don't get me wrong I hate it when any person demeans someone else and think the twitter is in the wrong.
Also the fact of her age shouldn't factor into it,insulting anyone should be looked down upon.
However I do find the double standard between swears interesting.

The double standards of sexism have existed for as long as I can remember lol, I don't see things changing anytime soon.

*sigh* I know but a man can wish can't he

 

[Kargathia]

The severity of 'c***' is a regional thing, most parts of the UK consider it to be one of the strongest swearwords around ( though none consider it to be quite as bad as in the US, to my knowledge), but there are a couple of areas in the southeast where it is used as casually as you have heard.

Which adds another argument as to why it was a poor choice of words: the audience certainly was not exclusively American, and they ended up constructing wordplay around a word with vastly different interpretations. Bad idea.

As to the article itself, whilst the article is correct in that the Onion should have made it clearer that it was a joke, people really need to take the context into account before they get mad, especially on the internet.

Do remember The Onion is not exactly universally known (to the point where foreign newspapers semi-regularly get burned sourcing them for news), and extremely few people can be bothered wiki'ing every random dipship on twitter.
Poe's law also is fully in effect here - I can throw a random bet that this wasn't even the worst thing said about her on the internet.

 

[Kyber]

I have to say, i hate "the C-word", and i don't mean ****, i have no problem with it, but the fact that people use words like "the F-word", or "the C-word". I know i'm quoting CK Louis here, but saying the word like that does not make it better, because you're putting the word in the listeners head, which is the same as just saying it.

OT: Most kids are cunts, if this one isn't, then maybe they were wrong by saying that she was, even if it was for satire. I don't think it required an apology though, because The Onion is, well The Onion, by presuming they were serious, shows that you may have never encountered a news article by The Onion before.

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

This is when I really wish George Carlin was alive.... I'm sure he'd have some awesome things to say about this. Probably using the work **** like a period... or maybe a comma...

 

[Fasckira]

Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.

A) No she didn't.
B) SHE'S FUCKING 9! Do you make it an habit to go around insulting 9-year-olds?

Meh, I know some 9 year olds who are right cunts. Likely wouldn't tell them though as thats just mean.

I don't think the c word is that big a deal, it's not like the n word where there is a long standing history that the word brings up.

**** and ******. Just say it, we can be pretty mature about these things and discuss them in this kind of setting.

This video is pretty relevant:

 

[Norix596]

No malice, terrible judgement - need to be responsible and very carefully consider when your stuff is a lot closer to "the line" than normal.

 

[mgirl]

Wait wait wait wait wait.

The 'C word' commmon to the point of casual in the UK??? From my experience you couldn't be more wrong there! At least not where I live. People might say it, but it's considered one of the worst words you can use. And the only people that use the word casually are the kind of idiots that think using bad swear words makes them cool.

 

[Something Amyss]

If you cannot figure out why the word "****" has such a vitriolic meaning in the states, you need to do a little more research.

Though the reaction is kind of hypocritical, given how sexist personal insults tend to be.

 

[Something Amyss]

**** and ******. Just say it, we can be pretty mature about these things and discuss them in this kind of setting.

Inclined to agree. It riles me a little when I hear people say "the N word" because it means that people are admitting we cannot discuss something as adults in a neutral setting.

 

[Loonyyy]

Maybe if people realised it was The goddamn motherfucking Onion, rather than reacting to a Poe, we'd have some sense from it.

I mean, really. It's the Onion. Anyone who's following them SHOULD KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. Anyone who isn't can find out easily enough. Behind Stewart and Colbert (And The Chaser for Australians), they're the best known for this stuff. Any journalist who reports on this without this clarification should no longer be a journalist. This should only be a thing amongst bored inbred housewives in the dark recesses of Facebook, and should never reach the light of day. Because it's just stupid.

The fault of this is not the Onion. If they prefaced it with *Satire inbound*, it loses the point. If they go with something weaker, it's no longer absurd. It's the same shit all the other outlets are putting out there, and you can't parody that by doing the same thing. The fault of this is stupid people. Stupid people everywhere. Stupid people who don't think about the media in the slightest. Which, if you think about it, is exactly what The Onion tries to change.

 

[Tumedus]

I agree with Bob on one point, the joke was poorly told. If you have to explain a joke, it failed. And if you are going to go for a joke like that, you have to commit. They were a bit too tentative and, oddly, that is part of why it came off as even more insulting.

That said...

I don't care if she is 9 years old, she is not exempt from humor, insults, or anything else that the world might throw at her. If you are afraid your child cannot handle the real world, its called "sheltering" for a reason. You keep her locked away from it. If you are going to let your child act, and thus expose her to more public scrutiny than virtually any other profession, she better damn well know how to handle insults, no matter how crass, on the internet. I guarantee you in a few years, especially as a female actress, its going to get a lot worse.

Further, I don't care if it was a poorly told joke, it was still a joke. All the indignation from everyone, especially the "we must protect the children" bullshit, just makes me want to side with the Onion more. If anything, I think it just gives evidence that the joke is worthy of being told; it just needed to be told right. And perhaps the spectrum needed to be broadened to satirize all the knee-jerkers as well.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

If you ask me, the only thing The Onion is guilty of is not understanding how twitter and the Internet works. I sincerely doubt Wallis would have ever even heard the joke much less be hurt by it, seeing as the onion isn't exactly including 9 year old girls in their demographic and if any of the media brought it to her attention in a way insinuating it was an insult then they're the ones who owe her an apology.

The Onion can easily craft a joke like this, this article was linked on their site, AT THE BOTTOM OF THEIR APOLOGY http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-slapped-a-crying-child-and-called-him-a-******-a,31361/ They just can't do so in 140 characters. Not in today's society.