Crude language is becoming more and more acceptable.

In 1939, Clark Gable's character Rhett Butler stated, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" in the film Gone with the Wind.  This line was nearly cut from the film because it didn't meet the industry's standards.  The movie's producer, David O. Selznick claimed,

It is my contention that this word as used in the picture is not an oath or a curse.  The worst that could be said of it is that it's a vulgarism.

Recent events have illustrated how far we have "progressed" in our use of language.

Recently elected Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib stated at a rally:

Rep-Elect Tlaib uses the word on-microphone.  (Screen grab, Fox 2 Detroit.)

And when your son looks at you and says mama, look you won, bullies don’t win, I said baby they don’t because we’re going to go in there and we’re going to impeach the MFer.  [I have bowdlerized this quote.  It is unnecessary to spell it out, since everyone knows what she said.]   

Tlaib's comments were defended by Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.).  Carson claimed:

We've got firepower in Congress.  We got sister Rashida in the House, and she's tough.  She's the kind of sister you take to a debate with scholars with you because she'll rock the house.

Nancy Pelosi stated she is "not in the censorship business."  Tlaib was also defended by actor Samuel Jackson, who endorsed her use of the word.

The election of Donald Trump has inspired a great deal of crudeness.  Third-rate actor Josh Charles screeched, "I'm so sick of this MFer.  Just so sick.  This needs to end.  F him and every single person who continues to support him and his dangerous administration."  

Cultural icon Snoop Dogg  stated, "F everybody down with Donald Trump.  If y'all do vote for him, y'all some stupid MFers."

An art gallery in Portland, Oregon displayed a graphic window illustration of President Trump being threatened with a bloody knife at his throat.  It was entitled "F Trump."

Much of this crudeness can be traced back to the music marketed to young people.  Dana Mack relates the story of Dr. C. DeLores Tucker in her book The Assault on Parenthood.  The late Dr. Tucker was the chair of the National Political Congress of Black Women.  Mack reported that Tucker became aware of the damaging effects of rap music when her seven-year-old daughter began using the word "MFer" indiscriminatingly in conversations.  In 1995, Tucker confronted Time Warner's board of directors about their marketing of Snoop Doggy Dog's album.  Obviously, she was not successful.

The establishment has gone to great lengths to make rap music acceptable.  President Obama frequently invited rap "artists" to the White House.  In 2018, rapper Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize for music.  Lamar is famous for that classic tune "I Don't Smoke Crack, MFer I Sell It."  That old-time classic "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won an Oscar in 2006.  Tupac Shakur was nominated for the NAACP Image Award.  Shakur is famous for the lullaby "Last MFer Breathin."  Ivy League universities have Hip Hop Archives and hip-hop scholars.  

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing).  He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary's University.  He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.