Verity Kindle objects over on this thread to the use of the word "papist" by someone who referred to themselves as a "recovering papist."

The problem being, as he/she sees it, that the word suggests we worship the Pope. Hey—I thought we worshipped the Virgin Mary. And the Saints. And golden calves. Guess I've been doing it all wrong.

You know how I am about language, though: making any word verboten goes against my grain, because it empowers that word and makes it more hurtful simply by being forbidden. So, once more: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits, nigger, kike, spic, faggot, skirt, heeb, whore, mick, lezzie, redneck, gook, chink, slut, wetback. Wingnut. Leftard. Papist.

(Now the Ann Coulter defenders are going to get on my case, on the basis that she only used a transgressive noun. That is not, of course, how I see it: I feel that she applied a perjorative term for homosexual—listed above—to a heterosexual, married man. In public. With cameras rolling. At an event I'd like to take itself more seriously than it sometimes does. So, yes: that was different.)

If anyone is entitled to use the term "papist," it would be a cradle Catholic, whether or not that person is still in the Church.

It's people of faith—Muslims, ironically, being sometimes an exception—who are marginalized the most in society today. I think we can take it as a given that any rocks being thrown around by the devout of any mainstream faith are either (1) done in a spirit of jest, or (2) the mark of idiots.

I can't define true religious slurs. But I know them when I see them.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:57 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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. . . that reading of any kind—whether online, or via dead tree—is like walking through that apple orchard in The Wizard of Oz? Typographical errors and incorrect word selections grab at one, tearing at one's clothing and sending one screaming away into the night.

Unless, of course, it's just me. Sigh.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:41 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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