Civility Update

/ Jack Marshall

Quick version: It’s getting worse.

You knew that, I assume. Just to pick one example, we heard a Presidential candidate in a debate call an opponent “scum”—and it was a female candidate. Remember when one of the arguments for putting women in office just because they were women was that they would civilize politics. Ah, those halcyon days of innocence!

The new year began with another one of those TV commercials that defines cleverness as “using language that is code for a vulgar phase or word.” Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about one of those, a tax refund service ad that used “What the buck?” and “Buck yeah!” This was even less clever than the still rampant “Let’s go Brandon!” coded insult to the President. (The coded use of “fuck” in that case is stillmore clever and slightly more civil than how Rep. Tlaib, one of the supposedly civilized female Congresswomen, referred to the previous President when she said for public consumption, “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!”)

In the past, Ethics Alarms has noted low-life advertisers using code words for “ass” (Verizon), alluding to sexual intercourse (Reese’s), evoking the word “shit” (K-Mart and DraftKings), as well as Jackson Hewitt’s inspiration for “buck,” Booking.com. For some reason, the un-named pizza company (I don’t want to give them any publicity for being, in Nikki’s terms, “scum”) commercial, promoting a really good pizza- and-other-stuff deal, showing a young woman exclaiming, “Shut the back door!” upon learning the shockingly low price bothered me even more than the past examples. “Shut the back door'” and also “Shut the front door” are street-talk euphemisms for “Shut the fuck up!” This is pandering to Generation Z, of course, but it’s also obscenely gratuitous.

Another coded obscenity made news last week when Roberta Kaplan, E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer, told George Conway on his podcast—yes, all you have to do to have a popular podcast in 2024 is to be a full time Trump Derangement carrier—- that Donald Trump said “See you next Tuesday!” to her client after a deposition at Mar-a-Lago. That’s the coded expression for “cunt,” as EA has previously noted.

For some reason Ann Althouse and her readers were fascinated by this anecdote (Ann didn’t know what it meant, so I guess my hope that she reads Ethics Alarms has been dashed), speculating on whether Trump would be familiar with this vulgar device (of course he would) and whether it is a true obscene insult if its targets don’t know what it signifies. Both Carroll and her lawyer claimed they did not at the time.

There is no doubt in my mind that Trump said this; its the kind of thing he would think was appropriate and witty. I don’t blame him entirely for the civility rot we have experienced since 2016, but he is a major culprit, as I sagely predicted in 2015.

Finally, we have this episode from the Yonkers (NY) City Council. Councilwoman Corazon Pineda-Isaac was leading an effort to remove Councilwoman Tasha Diaz from her role as the Democratic majority leader (she failed). Diaz, according to several witnesses, said she that she wanted to “slice this bitch’s throat,” referring to Pineda-Isaac. Pineda-Isaac filed a complaint with City Hall last week about the remark.

“Imagine how I felt being made aware of that,” Pineda-Isaac wrote in a January 24 letter to Carlos Moran, the city’s human resources commissioner. “Imagine coming to work and having to sit next to someone who has made such violent remarks.” Pineda-Isaac apparently doesn’t understand the Bill of Rights: there is no way Diaz could be punished or sanctioned for an over-heard remark not made in an official context.

Diaz told USA Today network that “In politics and while fighting for the residents of my district, I often speak hyperbolically as I am very passionate for fighting for the people of my district.” She went on to say, “Language taken out of context does not give the full picture and is mainly used as metaphors. If language used has ever offended anyone, I apologize.”

Why would anyone be offended by a colleague calling an elected official a bitch and saying she wanted to “slice her throat”? This is 2024, Corazon! Get with the program and tell her you’ll see her next Tuesday!

Note: WordPress’s AI wants me to tag this post “Lebanon.”

13 thoughts on “Civility Update”

  3. If I ask someone to “Shut the front door” it is because I would like the front door closed, nothing else. Also if I said “See you next Tuesday” it is because next Tuesday is when I expect to see them next. I am not going to stop using perfectly good English phrases just because some idiots have decided that some common every day phrases are now coded expression for some swear word.

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  4. I’ve been thinking about the idea of using language that’s a code for vulgar words and phrases. I remember my very religious grandfather would say things like “gosh darn”, not so much to be clever, but to have something to say when he was angry that wasn’t an actual expletive. 

    I’m curious. Is that different in any substantial way from what the advertisers are doing to be cute, and if so, how?

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    • I picked up “got dandruff!!” from a high school baseball coach who was a pretty devout Lutheran but easily frustrated. I still use that one.

      To the point of the OP, I don’t like advertisers using code language for words that are either profane or obscene. It hints at cro-magnon-level thinking. It’s one thing to use that language in a moment of intense frustration or anger…one could even argue that it’s preferable – in that instance – to throwing or smashing something.

      But advertisements are not off-the-cuff. They are not extemporaneous in any way. They are carefully crafted ahead of time, most often by ad agencies that specialize in marketing with creators that are supposed to be experts in wordsmithing and are paid handsomely for their services. Using euphemisms for foul language shows a real lack of imagination; an inability to capture an audience’s attention except by shock value, hoping the listener will first hear something other than “What the buck?!?” and then perk up. That’s just unsophisticated and crass. They can – and should – do better. Companies should demand better.

      As for Ms. Diaz’s words…said in the workplace those would likely be considered some form of harassment at the least, and an unveiled threat in the worst case. I have been working professionally since 1992 and have always had a passion for what I do. I have never said I was going to slit someone’s throat…certainly not in anger, and never even in jest. A competent HR department would likely reprimanded – and possibly fire – her. Am I wrong in that assessment?

      Politicians are supposed to embody the best angels of our nature. They have become some of the absolute worst offenders.

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    • Someone had to point out to our administrators that their choice of building names should not be the Administration and Student Services building especially since all the buildings are referred to in the shorthand abbreviations. However, it was an accurate name.

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  7. It wasn’t that long ago (easily 20 years ago) that the envisioned rapid transit service for the southern east bay (CA) nixed the name “Fremont Area Rapid Transit”. Something about propriety of the acronym. 

    [I’m going on 80; 20 years is a blink of the eye…]

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