I was alive during the Free Speech riots. They were not about Free Speech. They were about the ability to use 4-letter, Anglo-Saxon expletives in public. I distinctly recall the then-famous (now forgotten) rabble-rouser who insisted “Every Grandmother must be forced to say “F*(K” after being told such language was looked upon as a real assault by many elders. It was a micro-aggression before micro-agressions were invented. Not only did Gram have to listen to such language, she was to be forced to speak it.
It was the locutional equivalent of bra burning and females going topless in the street. Just one more step in the Gramsci agenda of coarsening public discourse. Which, by the way, has been a success. I’m now a 74-year-old woman and I cannot think of a word that shocks me or one I won’t use if circumstances warrant.
“I’m now a 74-year-old woman and I cannot think of a word that shocks me or one I won’t use if circumstances warrant.”
Me too-——my late mother would be absolutely horrified.
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