Canning Trash Talk

By Douglas V. Gibbs

"Well, your mama wears combat boots."

Perhaps an insult in a day and age when the men went to fight in war, and women kept the home fires burning, now such an insult could be taken as a compliment for one that supports an American's willingness to voluntarily serve his, or her, country.

I suppose a quip about one's mama, or daddy, wearing combat boots would be an insult in a group of progressive flower children at an anti-war rally.

History is filled with talking trash.  From one's mother wearing combat boots to sports figures tossing verbal garbage at each other on the court, the ice, or the field.  Trash talking has always been a fact of life.  It hovers somewhere between hard competition and violent bullying.  Trash Talking pushes the envelope and dances on the line between acceptable behavior and hurtful rhetoric.  Man-up, I was told as a child, when the trash talkers began to make fun of my game, often dragging my mother into the one-sided conversation.

Man-up.

In today's society of over-sensitive knee-jerkers who are offended at the drop of a combat boot, we find ourselves having to guard ourselves from getting into a war of words, being careful what we say, not just because society might look down upon a little trash talking that involves someones mama, race, gender, sexuality, handicaps, religion, height, or even their level of abilities, but because such language may even get you in trouble with the law.

So much for the First Amendment.

In recent sports news tennis star Serena Williams, after talking trash on Maria Sharapova, has found herself in a position where she must apologize for comments made regarding Sharapova's private life.  Trying to get into one's competitor's head has become something controversial, and unacceptable.  The media is always quick to force the trash talkers to correct their behavior.

Sergio Garcia learned the same lesson when he got into a war of words with Tiger Woods.

Larry Byrd would never make it in today's society.  He is considered to be one of history's best trash talkers, getting in his opponent's face, bumping chests, and shouting some pretty messed up trash - something that was an important part of his game plan.

Should talking trash be curbed?   Should talking trash be tossed out with the week's garbage?  Or are we, as a society, truly being oversensitive?

Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym S.G. Tallentyre, was an English writer who wrote the biography of famed atheist, Voltaire, which she completed in 1906.  In "The Friends of Voltaire," Voltaire being a character that the progressives hold up quite highly, Hall wrote the phrase: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  In my early radio programs, going back to 2007, a regular listener that went by "Mudkitty" used to recite that exact phrase.  She may have disagreed with me politically, but she understood the importance of a free exchange of words between opponents - even if the language got a little rough.

In New Jersey, at the hands of the progressive republican governor, Chris Christie, trash talking will be illegal in school sports starting this fall.  Understand, we are not talking about the refs giving warnings, but that talking trash could result in an investigation of the player by authorities, that could result in severe penalties against such trash talkers, in the State's attempt to challenge bullying in the schools.  Talk trash, and you can be facing some serious problems with the authorities.

A statement like "You shoot like a girl" can suddenly result in "You are paying penalties like a criminal" - and kill any hopes for a scholarship.

Life is full of bullies.  As children, we fight the storms of trash talkers and bullies to better prepare us for a world that, despite the societal utopia the liberal left is striving to create, can be brutal, and is results-oriented with obstacles and bullies at every turn, along the road to success.  By protecting the children from the bullies and trash talkers, rather than just teaching them to stand up for themselves, we are putting these future adults at a disadvantage, stripping them of the tools, and the mental toughness, needed to be a productive member of society.  The children, and members of society, are being herded away from being mentally tough individuals towards being soft, compliant government dependents and mindless automatons.

A friend of mine once told me, "Political Correctness will be the death of this nation."

With this age of over-sensitivity, the fear of offending anyone and being willing to use the law to make sure we protect ourselves against such things, and the rise of us tippy toeing around everything we say, we are creating a weak society unable to stand up for itself, unable to fight off anyone that opposes us, and a culture so worried about what it says that we have literally found ourselves retreating into the corners, afraid to say anything, be it against our immediate opponents, or against anything larger.  We have been beaten into silence, fearful we might say the wrong thing.

In the immortal words of Ted Nugent, "Suck on my machine gun," you worthless S.O.B. - Bring it on!

Oh, and your mama wears combat boots.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Smack Talk: The 20 Best Trash Talkers in Sports History - Bleacher Report

Evelyn Beatrice Hall - Wikipedia

Serena Williams apologises to Maria Sharapova for war of words - Herald Sun

New Jersey outlaws trash-talking in high school sports - The Daily Caller

Secret Service Drops Inquiry Into Ted Nugent - ABC News

Crowds Taunt Sergio Garcia at US Open over Tiger Woods comment - U.K. Guardian