Okay, you sold me. I think I will verbally assault some stranger on the street and then head down to the playground to call children some mean names.
Those who cite the First Amendment in order to justify crass behavior is using a coward's shield. Free speech is responsible speech, and frankly I'm tired of folks wheeling out the Bill of Rights every time they feel the need to be an a**hole. And since we are speaking frankly, I'm tired of colleges and universities protecting and paying these mealy mouthed individuals.
Free speech, free speech, free speech, decorum be damned. Everyone has the right to be a butthole while working in a publicly funded educational institution because free speech gives you the right to be a jerk. Respect means jack, cuz we got that free speech. Polite discourse is for suckers.
Whoopdie freakin' do. Just the kind of society I want to live in. Let's all embrace our right to be rude.
APf
The guy was expressing his opinion on a listserv, as a private individual, just as you are. And just as you are free to use anatomical references on this forum, so he is entitled to use coarse means of expression on the listserv in question. Or do you intend to deny him what you yourself practice?
Free speech, free speech, free speech, decorum be damned. Everyone has the right to be a butthole while working in a publicly funded educational institution because free speech gives you the right to be a jerk. Respect means jack, cuz we got that free speech. Polite discourse is for suckers.
One has to question the intelligence of someone who uses language like the above in a call for polite discourse.