My dad and I started watching Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland today, on his request.

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

@AoifeGreenhamIllustrations My dad left in '74, as a direct result of the Troubles, but he enjoyed the first episode a lot, as it covered the NI he knew and grew up with. He found it to be pretty even-handed, too. He's a Protestant by background, but he's not a loyalist by any means.

[aoifegreenhamillustrations@mastodon.ie]

@astronomerritt Yes, we found it to be even handed and clear eyed, as far as we could tell. We watched House of Paisley afterwards, because we were so 'in' the era, really fascinating look at how Ian Paisley came to be who he was. Used to be on the Iplayer too but not sure if it's still available.

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

@AoifeGreenhamIllustrations I'm not sure I could stick that much Paisley, to be honest, the man turns my stomach and his son is basically a carbon copy of him without the charisma 😅

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

I appreciate that the BBC left the swearing in. If you can't swear about the Troubles, what the fuck can you swear about?

Besides, telling someone from here not to swear when they talk is like telling them not to blink. You'll only make them uncomfortable and they'll end up doing it anyway.

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

It's always a bit jarring to me when I see folk complain about bad language online, using phrases like "nobody has to use those words" and "it's always vulgar" and "it sounds uneducated".

Please understand: that is cultural bias.

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

it's also classist as fuck, imo, but I am told I need to stop turning everything into a class issue

(everything IS a class issue, you can fight me AND the chip on my shoulder)

[bencotterill@mastodon.social]

@astronomerritt It fucking is the bunch of berks.

[petealexharris@mastodon.scot]

@astronomerritt
It's also extremely rude. If I say fuck when I'm talking about something, and I'm not talking directly to anyone in particular, and certainly not directing robust language AT anyone, that's just word choice.

If someone makes it into a direct conversation with me for the purpose of criticising my word choice, that's interpersonal rudeness that is directed at someone, discourteous in multiple ways that merely saying fuck is not.

[anguadelphine@mk.absturztau.be]

@astronomerritt@hachyderm.io

Ooh. I'll add it to my Watchlist. Couple more worth looking at too from there.

Thanks for posting.
Must have missed it on broadcast, shame. DVR's easier than streaming.

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

@petealexharris That's an excellent way of putting it.

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

@AnguaDelphine I'd tell you I hope you enjoy it, but "enjoy" is perhaps not the right word 😅

[anguadelphine@mk.absturztau.be]

@astronomerritt@hachyderm.io

I'll settle for having more of an understanding, hopefully knowing more than I did.

Oral Tradition is both the best & worst record of history, invaluable either way.

Thanks again.

[junklight@mastodon.art]

@astronomerritt people that don't like swearing are usually awful people

they prefer politely spoken lies to hearing rough truths

(I'm pretty sure there is also research to back this up)

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

@junklight My partner works with Americans and thus has to keep their language "professional", and they have actually said that they feel like it's much harder to be candid and genuine when they can't swear.

[bencotterill@mastodon.social]

@astronomerritt
@purplepadma is berk considered a big swear word?

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

@BenCotterill @purplepadma I personally wouldn't even consider it a swear word. I know where it comes from, my English granddad was always at the rhyming slang, but it still doesn't register as remotely sweary to me.

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

Every British person does a subconscious class calculation when they meet someone, whether they admit to it or not. You want to know if someone is "like you" so you know how to speak to them and how to relate to them. But I mess up the calculations. I've got too many middle-class indicators now from being highly educated. (That's classism for you!) So swearing is, for me, often a way to reassure someone working-class that we're on the same level and can relate to each other as such.

It's annoying, though. I don't get angry at people much, but a close colleague once tried to joke that the Pulp song Common People was about me, having gotten the impression that my working-class indicators were the pretension, and not the middle-class ones. The idea that I might read as one of those fucking idiots who pretends to be working-class because they think it's "cool" drives me round the bend.

[fen@zoner.work]

@astronomerritt@hachyderm.io @junklight@mastodon.art as an american i feel this. it's inappropriate to tell someone "we're fucked" in a professional setting, which unsurprisingly makes it really difficult to accurately convey the degree to which things are fucked.

[froztbyte@mastodon.social]

@astronomerritt It absolutely incenses me when eg callcenters get trained to disengage the moment someone swears

fucking forced “civility” and tone policing directly meant as a subjugation tactic, “bow before your friendly corporate overlord and pray we assist”

pitchforks and torches. I hate the fucking phrase “it should be illegal” (because so much dislike of legal system usage) but _that feeling_

[astronomerritt@hachyderm.io]

I also feel I need to explain, for Americans and other strange creatures, that class in Britain has absolutely nothing to do with how much money you have. You're born into a class and you're not getting out of it. It's your upbringing and your background and your language and your culture.

Your kids might be of a different class to you. Your grandkids certainly can be. But you're stuck with where you're born, and British society tends not to like it if you pretend otherwise.

Do not take this explanation for approval.