Bruce Springsteen receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November, 2016.
Words are important.
And I don’t care what side of the political aisle you’re on … words are important.
Point 1
During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Bruce Springsteen tweeted:
“Some people seemed upset that I called @realDonaldTrump a moron, so I wanted to clarify my remarks: He’s also an asshole.”
Springsteen is one of my generation’s most noted entertainers. Now that he’s a senior citizen, it doesn’t seem that age has improved his eloquence. He’s got a bully pulpit, and he chooses to use it not to elevate our discourse, but to descend to rhetoric that’s both profane and immature.
Does anyone really think it helps to call our President a moron, or an idiot, or the Cheeto-in-Chief? How does this help anyone come to a political solution to any of our problems?
And when a cultural opinion leader debases their legacy to play in the mud, it especially does not help us. Opinion leaders should uplift, not just play to the lowest common denominator for a cheap yuk.
Point 2
Bridge Ratings has done research on attitudes of users towards Facebook, and has found that dissatisfaction is growing among users. Dissatisfaction is growing, they find, in part due to the caustic comments of Facebook users.
People just don’t want to hear snarky political commentary … as this study shows. This study talks about the fatigue it found among Facebook users, and finds one cause to be:
Words like “vitriol” and “hate” were used frequently to describe an increasing number of posts on Facebook newsfeeds.
Read about this interesting study, here.
Point 3
Please, this is not a political post. It’s a post about language.
Words Can Hurt
Here are some quotes I pulled from Facebook over the last few months … I’m sure you’ve seen some that are similar:
“You don’t want to be associated with a sociopath, do you?”
“What planet do you reside. Certainly not one that is respectful of woman. Embarrassed for you!”
“Please don’t tell me that you are a real woman. You have no idea how to be one.”
“He’s unfit not only to be POTUS, but, as Amy (ed note: Amy Schumer) said, to be a human being as well.”
So, words are important … but they can also hurt. When you use flamboyant, guttural language, are you helping or hurting your cause?
More
Observer: An Apology From Bruce Springsteen… (is this style, or is it fake news?)
