Our increasingly vulgar public discourse

Fair is fair.

No one has been more critical of President Trump, especially in areas of what I see as an increasing coarseness and other base aspects of our society.

What was once considered taboo is now the stock of the trade.

There are no shortage of people who disagree with the president.

I often find myself aligned with them.

But there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

Last night we again were offered a very public display of the wrong way to do it.

And it came from one of my favorite actors.

Legendary film star Robert DeNiro was called on to introduce Bruce Springsteen at Sunday night's Tony Awards. He mentioned how 'The Boss' was able to use his powerful music "not only to rock the house, but also to rock the vote."

In the process, he apparently could not resist twice dropping a couple of F-bombs on President Trump. Thankfully, both of them got bleeped by CBS before they went out on the air.

I slammed Roseanne Barr for her ugly comments. I did the same with Samantha Bee.

I have no issue with a vigorous, passionate debate of the issues.

I have problems with what is becoming our increasing reliance on common vulgarities to get our point across.

Robert DeNiro only pushed the bar a little bit lower last night.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You don't get it. He's fighting fire with fire. The time for polite is over. The foul language we've seen from DeNiro and Samantha Bee is a specific way of screaming to wake people up. If this feels like an abandoning of civil discourse, I would simply say that started with Trump. And when the right-wingers get all up in arms about the nasty language, please just cue the video. Far worse happened at Trump rallies all the time, including Trump friend Ted Nugent calling Hillary the C word and later being invited to the White House. I applaud DeNiro for expressing how angry he is in a way that clearly worked. Everyone's talking about it.
Anonymous said…
I guess I am old school but you have to respect the office!! The President of the USA office! You can dislike, disagree, etc with all of it, BUT he holds the office. Just respect that, not him. We look like fools to the rest of the world with what we are doing.Its a joke, the whole last election was the worst thing I have ever seen. It sickens me how billions were spent in that Election when so many could have benefited from it being used to help others.
While he won't let us take the focus off of HIM, Americans should concentrate on making things better for the people who live here, struggling with jobs, mental health, lack of medical care for everyone, Our fantastic Veterans & current military personnel, people living generations on public assistance, Our senior citizens still taxed, can't afford medications, paying into Social Security for years only to find they still have to work to make ends meet, immigrants living in fear of deportation.
Our police officers, teachers, firefighters, schools all being shown in the worst way instead of positive. While both should be shown, if we all put as much energy & publicity on good things, positive reinforcement, family values, and show these things in the news daily in a positive way it helps!
Teachers should not carry firearms, they are teachers & our children should not wonder if they will be killed today in school.
Police help people every day & should not be feared. If our children can't go to an officer for help, where would they go? Just think about it. We all bleed red don't we?
Better education & training is needed. And we as a people, can't jump to conclusions without all facts.

I am not comfortable at all with the way people have no respect for anyone these days. Above anything else we are human beings, with different views, religions, & cultures. We tend to fear what we do not,know or understand. We see the news and then hate because of what was shown. We take an issue, put our own spin on it, put in on the internet, where the next person does the same over & over till te real issue is lost in translation. See what I mean, I took a question on increasing vulgar public discourse & expanded it, gave opinions on it & a lot if other issues.
As far as vulgar public discourse, Stop it. What citizens should be concentrating on are understanding of each other & good honest viable Canidates for the next Presidential Election!