On the Banned wagon ...

A large number of tweets today about whether various words should be put on the "Banned List" which journalists strongly discourage one another from using (see a John Rentoul blogpost from to years ago here.

I don't mind this sort of thing as a joke, and yes, many of the words and expressions people are talking about banning are dire, or grossly over-used.

And yet something grates a little.

Perhaps I am a little over-sensitive on the subject of censorship this week, having been reading Nick Cohen's excellent work You can't read this book which is a frightening and depressing polemic on how effectively the enemies of freedom have persuaded us to censor what is said and published.

The glory of the English language is its' diversity. Perhaps we should think a little more carefully before being too quick to suggest, even in jest, that words or phrases should be banned.

Comments

Jim said…
Why would you ever want too, I mean U know the f word as well as you do, and yes i know S**t and C**t, and T**t, there is nothing shocking there,

In some ways yes but in others no, you see i don't tend to use swear words a lot.

why don't i use them? -
Its for 2 reasons really, firstly this is a family friendly blog which means i would break the rulss if i tried.
Second and I think most important, if i have a point to raise then I can raise it without using certain combinations of the alphabet which the may find only weakens my point.
8:32 pm
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