“Sticks and Stones My Break My Bones But….Words Will REALLY Hurt Me”?

Hey everybody!

Noah here and I wanted to take a moment to talk about a new trend I’ve noticed recently.

Wondering if you’ve noticed this too?

This country was founded on a notion that we don’t back down from anything.

The King taxed our tea?

We told him to fuck off and we dumped all that tea in the harbor.

We even created a mantra around it in the 19th century, a little something that went like this: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”

Anyone else remember chanting that as a kid?

In other words, sure if you punch me or hit me, that’s going to hurt.  But words?  Words bounce right off.

Because we didn’t use to be pussies.

And sorry Franklin, this post is going to be a bit graphic in nature, because quite frankly that’s my entire point!

We’ve gone from a nation of un-offend-able, clear-headed, strong-minded people that rolled with the proverbial punches to a nation full of pacified losers looking for their Safe Spaces.

“I need to go to my safe place!”

“You’re not a safe person!”

“Your words wounded me!”

Oh please, grow the fuck up.

But it’s not just the blue-haired, septum nose-ringed girl working at Starbucks anymore.

That’s been going on for a long time.

The new trend I’m noticing is it seems to have invaded places that used to be immune to this.

Places like the TSA:

No threats, verbal abuse, or physical violence of any kind. Behavior like this doesn’t fly! If you threaten, endanger, or harm Transportation Security Officers, we WILL pursue criminal penalties and fines up to $13.91k. #RespectingOurOfficers #FlySmart pic.twitter.com/aMIzZAuMRb

— TSA (@TSA) July 24, 2023

Look, obviously I’m not sitting here advocating for threats or physical violence against the TSA.  Not in the slightest.

As I have posted countless times over the past decade, we need to fight back but we need to fight back PEACEFULLY and PATRIOTICALLY!

I reiterate that call right now, just in case there’s any confusion.

But it’s the second one on that list that gets me: “No verbal abuse”.

Really?

No verbal abuse?

And what is “verbal abuse” anyway?

I hurt your feelings?

I violated your Safe Space?

I looked at you mean?

Has anyone told the TSA about a little thing called the First Amendment?

Here’s the full text of it, just in case you need a refresher:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

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I can already hear some poindexter saying “But Noahhhhh, Congress didn’t make this sign, the TSA did!”

DERP!

Congress established the TSA and we can all thank George W. Bush for signing that into law on November 19, 2001.

And the Congressionally-created TSA is now saying “you can’t use mean words around us!”

Are you freaking kidding me?

Sorry, but NO LAW abridging the FREEDOM of speech is pretty clear….and you don’t get to filter out the speech that you don’t like, the speech that hurts your feelings.  You don’t get to filter out the mean speech.

This is important…according to the First Amendment, you don’t even get to filter out abusive speech.

In fact, here’s a quick legal lesson for you to summarize the First Amendment protections and key cases that have refined those protections over the centuries:

Under the United States Constitution, the government generally cannot censor speech merely because someone considers it “abusive,” offensive, insulting, hateful, or emotionally harmful.

Over many decades, the Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly held that offensive speech is still protected speech unless it falls into a narrow, historically recognized exception.

Some major categories of speech that can be restricted include:

• True threats
• Incitement to imminent lawless action
• Defamation (libel/slander)
• Obscenity
• Certain forms of harassment in limited contexts
• Fighting words (a very narrow doctrine today)

So I’m sorry TSA, but speech that hurts your feelings is not allowed to be censored.

I’m not even advocating for it, I think we need to return decency and dignity to places like airports and Make Flying Great Again, but that’s a street that runs both ways and the TSA agents are filthy, they’re visually disgusting to look at most times, fat, slovenly, many smell bad, and they treat US with the bad attitudes first, treating us like common criminals when we’re just trying to fly somewhere.

So with all due respect to your sign, your sign can fuck off.  Source: The First Amendment.

I think the thing that really pisses me off is the fact that none of these people realize they work for US.  They serve US.

They are funded by OUR taxpayer dollars.

They should be going out of their way to make sure we have an incredible experience.

Instead, what happens?

We are gouged in taxes, pushed to the limits, then the Government steals all that money anyway giving it to Somali Learing Centers, then the TSA goes out and hires the most disgusting looking and smelling people they can find, they treat us like SHIT for 25+ years, they suck at their jobs (it’s the Post Office and DMV just imported into airports), and after all of that they have the complete and utter gall to threaten US with signs like this:

Absolutely unreal.

And I will repeat one more time for clarity, I’m not advocating for any violence of any kind — furthermore, I’m not even advocating for “verbal abuse”.

I’m just saying I’m sick and tired of the “verbal abuse” that has flowed from the TSA to the American Citizens for 25+ years, and this street needs to run both ways.

I’m calling for dignity and respect to return to airports, but how about we start that with the TSA?  How about you lead by example?

How about you take a shower in the morning and show up to work with a smile?

How about after you do show up to work, you approach your job with the attitude of “how many people can I get through this line and to their planes as quickly as possible today?”

How about any of that?

But it’s not even just the disgusting TSA…it’s even seeped its way into business.

Check out this warning I found in a company’s Terms of Service today:

You will not allow abusive, threatening or degrading behaviour?

Really?

How about the “degrading” behavior all your corporate greed has caused all of us collectively over the last 50 years?

Canceling American jobs because you shipped your help centers to India?

“Press 1 for English”

We used to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a helpful person who spoke English and who actually wanted to fix your problem.  It used to be “The customer is always right!”

Not anymore.

Now it’s work your way through a phone tree pushing 10+ buttons only to then wait on hold 30 minutes, be greeted by someone speaking more Indian Hindi than English, barely understand what they are saying but understand completely that they really have no desire to actually help you, then find out that after sitting on hold for 30 minutes you chose wrong on the phone tree and they have to transfer you to a different department.  Hope you don’t have anywhere to be, because this one will be a 45 minute wait!

How about WE THE PEOPLE….we your customers….will not longer allow this type of “degrading behavior”?

How about you bring some dignity and class and actual HELP back to your companies?

Folks, I think what bothers me the most about all of this is I think all of these people know that everyone is at their wits end.

We don’t like this system.

We no longer recognize this country.

We don’t like being herded like cattle through TSA, we don’t like receiving no help from companies, and I really think the last straw is for these Government Agencies and Companies to now come out and threaten us!

The gall.

The complete audacity to treat us like shit for decades and then tell us: “Listen buddy, we better not hear any complaining from you!  Complaining will get you a $13,910 fine or we’ll just cancel your account with us, how do you like that?

Not happy?

Too bad buddy!

THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES!

That’s how I view these signs.

Ok, rant over.

It feels good to get that off my chest.

If you agree, drop me a comment below and share this with someone who might also agree.

And as I sign out, I’ll say one final time: I’m not calling for violence or even mean words of any kind.  This is a call for civility.  But it starts with them first.  We’ve all been doing it already for 50 years.