Are you tired of this stupid fucking refrain yet? Oh, boo hoo, life is just so uncivil these days! Naturally, that statement begs the question: As opposed to when?
Really, when was this Golden Age of Civility? Ten years ago? Fifty? One hundred? When the fuck was this time when everyone was concerned about etiquette and politeness? Because, honestly, I don’t think that shit ever existed. Let’s take a quick jaunt through American history, shall we?
…
Look at that. It’s South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks beating the shit out of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner.
a) This is one of those things where the original point and the backlash are about as equally annoying. I think TNC wrote recently that he didn’t really care whether or not Joe Wilson’s outburst was a racist act because the real problem is institutionalized racism and class politics, and outburst/civility shit is a distraction from that.
b) Preston Brooks beat up Sumner because Sumner made a pretty vicious and insulting speech about some pro-slavery Senators, one of whom had suffered a stroke and thus talked kind of badly. So Brooks hit him with his cane, which is how you disciplined domestic animals. A hundred plus years after the fact, this is pretty funny.
c) You know what group of people don’t say shit like ‘America is more vicious/incivil now than it has been before?’ Civil War historians.
3 months ago • 21 notes
