TMZ, the celebrity news site, has always been pretty stupid (along with its readers), but I thought this headline had to be a joke. When have you ever heard of a news story involving someone who isn’t famous saying a word? Apparently TMZ’s audience is so woke and unfamiliar with the core value of freedom of speech that a stranger uttering the two-syllable word “nigger” is as news worthy as an actual crime. Readers are expected to react with horror: “How could this happen? What is the country coming to? What can we do to halt this unbearable assault on our sensibilities?”
What ever happened to “Sticks and stone can break my bones but words will never hurt me”? TMZ never even reveals to whom the dangerous word was addressed, if anybody.
A Delta passenger was caught on video using the n-word while being escorted off a flight by cops … after allegedly screaming “death to America” and pretending to shoot fellow travelers. Video circulating on X shows the unruly passenger being removed from a Delta flight Thursday, which was scheduled to travel from New York City’s JFK International Airport to Atlanta.Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … the passenger has been identified as Jerome Anixter, a 60-year-old Brooklyn man, who was arrested and charged with assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. We’re told Port Authority Police responded after Delta reported a disruptive passenger who appeared intoxicated while the plane was at the gate preparing for departure. ..
And so we see what TMZ considers, in order, worst, bad, and least bad: the uttering of a word, “Death to America,” (a threat) and “pretending to shoot fellow travelers.” (With what, his finger? But that still can constitute criminal assault).
TMZ is also deliberately trying to get the man, whose disruptive behavior seems to have fallen well short of actress Selma Blair’s recent flying freakout, attacked or killed by some anti-hate speech vigilante by branding him as a racist. Nice. If that word is the lead, then presumably simply using the word would justify a TMZ story if the guy didn’t do anything else. Perhaps we can look forward to future news flashes like “DoorDash delivery man says “Poopy-head”! and “Dog-walker says supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” If the non-famous are going to be publicly shamed for mere words now, the least TMZ could do is start headlining real affronts to communication with headlines like “Woman on bus says “Statue of limitations!” or “Teacher uses “Irregardless”!
This is The Great Stupid, my friends. Banishing it from the culture will be like trying to get rid of bedbugs.
[WordPress suggests that I tag this story “Art.”]
Well the recent drunk male airline passenger who caused a ruckus, and was also in real estate, was Layne Arthur Lundeen (the one who was duct taped to his seat). If he went by a shortened middle name – Art – WordPress might be anticipating a trend and naming it after him.
Either that or the AI it uses wants to disprove the suggestion that it’s super intelligent rather than artificial.
Very well played! I don’t get where WP gets its “tag” suggestions. It also says I can add those tags to the post with a click: nothing happens.
I grew up with “sticks and stones” but the truth is, words can be painful and most of the time moral, thoughtful, polite people try not to deliberately offend, insult or aggravate others. Having said that ….. for decades we have been raising children who are in need of toughening. On a sensitivity scale of one to ten, my children and I can roll with eight or nine. My grandchildren can probably manage six or seven, but their generation is a weaselly four or five. Just about anything young children say to each other can be considered bullying. It is part of the softening of America and it doesn’t just make us look weak, we are weaker for it.
Lots of things “hurt,” like “the truth.” If you let people’s mean words and “discouraging words” (“Home on the Range”) cause you crippling pain, you’re not going to accomplish much. Best among many lessons I learned from Dad…and if I let insults and the rest affect me, I wouldn’t have accomplished half of what I have in life.
Agree with you and your Dad. It is also true that there are at least six different ways to convey the truth, and if you choose your words carefully, you can frequently control the tone of the dialogue. That is worthwhile. As a successful lawyer, I’m sure you’ve mastered the art of choosing power and tact wisely.
Can’t say I was a “successful lawyer” in the accepted sense of the word. I have accomplished a lot employing law-related skills in a variety of contexts, projects and pursuits. My theater-learned skills have proven much more valuable over-all.
Lyrics from a Rick Ross (a rap guy) song, other parts of which are used in a television commercial for some AI assistant:
I ain’t petty, nigga, we buy the whole thang
See, most of my niggas really still deal cocaine
I know this is an old complaint, but if the word is kryptonite, why is it okay if a black person says it? Black people can say it and it’s empowering, but it’s fatal if a white person says it. Give me a break. A classic “gotcha” power play. The entire situation is farcical.