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Showing posts from April, 2019

For Chuck and Sharon

I always hesitate to involve myself in big Tourette community outcry efforts like the one being brought against NBC's Chuck Todd in response to his use of the word "Tourette" as an adjective to describe, in effect, an asshole on the internet. I've never been inclined to police another person's speech, though I realize now that's a privilege I own as a straight white cisgender able-bodied Christian middle class American male. People aren't generally saying police-able things about people like me, and sadly we're frequently the ones saying the abhorrent stuff. I also think that complaining "@" a person on the internet is a little like getting so angry that you scream at the stars. It might feel good, but no one is really listening. It's a generational thing, and I'm caught in the middle of it: I'm old enough to remember the 18 years before I even had an email address, but not old enough to have a kid who regularly uses the internet.