Fuck Politeness

So. Having ‘popped a spaz’ over the shithouse content of mainstream news service blogs I typed the following last night (or maybe the night before…since the following shit attack over “Sam in the City” (LAME) on the SMH website, I got myself involved in an online sledge-off with Sam de Brito of “All Men Are Liars” fame (ahem) on the SMH site. Check the fucker out and bombard him with counterarguments). Figured I’d get me a blog and whack it on…but my head hurts, I can’t find my glasses, and I have NO idea what all these buttons are for. I’ll get better. Here goes:

Allright (cheers *Author Boy*, I know it’s not ‘a word’ but, you know, it’s common parlance).
I have officially had enough – here it comes. I am, I freely admit, a lazy bastard! I’m an ‘ideas man’, I get all excited over a new idea for a movie, a comedy skit, some new political agitation…and then time passes and nothing happens.

But today, the thing that’s really on my tits is that every time I look at a newspaper/magazine I am astonished by the fuckwits who get given the privilege of being published, and get PAID for their shithouse writing. This in itself hasn’t been enough motivation to do what I’ve been talking about for years and actually start my own blog, but today I had a little ‘snap’.

NOW – a little disclaimer. I am not a professional writer. I like to write, I get fired up and I think that I have some things to say (occasionally) worth saying…it is this I believe that will distinguish me from Sam de Brito, ‘Ask Sam’ and Miranda Devine (that’s right, hate em, if you don’t like it, feel free to stop reading here and I won’t give a shit). I am fiercely political and I will not sit down and shut up. According to my boss I have a pathological avoidance of using proper paragraphs, and as will become apparent, I have very little grasp of the rules of grammar. So if you’re tempted to write in and criticise me for this, don’t waste your time. These things are unlikely to ever change. You like right-wing bullshit? Go buy a newspaper.

Right, now that’s out of the way, let me tell you what FINALLY prompted me to do this (at the cost of cooking a proper dinner for my son, who is now enjoying a tuna, cheese and mayo melt instead of the planned meal).

An article on the stud/slut hypocrisy. Are your eyes rolling back into your head yet? (Take that, *Fabric Boy*, a masterfully spaced paragraph, no?)

Right, well, if you rolled your eyes cos you’re sick of ‘feminist ranting’ then, save your time and energy and fuck off now. There’s a billion ways to get your misogynist kicks out there, so you know, go away. As you may have been alerted to by the website title, I am not interested in politeness.

You wanna know why? I have to live in a world where rape is used as a tool of war. Where even in countries where civil unrest is not an issue, one in four women will report being raped, one in four women will be beaten by their partner. I have to live in a county in which we have systematically tried to extinguish the rightful owners, through genocide, incarceration, forced use of English, dispossession, slave labour, withheld wages and stolen children. Where laws which step up the attacks against Indigenous communities passed with barely a word of opposition. A world in which people can be beaten and killed for their sexuality, where the rule of law can be tossed out the window for ‘special cases’, where left-wing is equated with ‘radical lunacy’. So I am saying “Fuck Politeness” – I have to live in this world, in this country, in this society. But I don’t have to use ‘manners’ when I talk about it. It shits me off and right here I’m gonna say so as loud, as often, and with as many expletives as I please.

Now I’m tired and hungry so I’ll see you all later. (By the way – all for politeness in everyday life, I’m polite to everyone. What I’m talking about is refusing to be polite in the face of pressure to shut up, to swallow the lies I’m being fed, to not be angry, to ‘play nice’ – I’m pissed that when Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle stood up and asked Bush to answer questions about David Hicks, they were called ‘impolite’ – when people’s lives are at stake, the only acceptable response is “FUCK POLITENESS” (or “I believe I will bypass politeness in favour of speaking my mind” if you are really against swearing).

Sleep well!

Tags: defiance, expletives, manners, racism, rants, rape, sledging, technical knowledge, writing