It's no secret to anyone who spends time on the internet that liberals talk a lot dirtier than conservatives. In public, anyway; I don't know whether this holds true in private conversation or not. Notwithstanding the fact that this is common knowledge, there has been a lot of buzz about this survey of liberal and conservative sites. It begins with the "seven words you can't say on television," and purports to count how many times those words appeared on 18 of the top liberal and 22 of the top conservative blogs. The result was striking: liberals used the "bad" words 18 times as often as conservatives.
That didn't really surprise me, but when I looked at the chart that set forth the results of the survey, I found that 68 instances of the "seven words" were recorded for Power Line. This struck me as obviously wrong. I'm certain that six of the seven words have never appeared on Power Line at all, and the seventh (a four-letter word that starts with "s") has appeared only a time or two when we were quoting someone else.
So I ran the search on Power Line the same way it was done for the survey. What I found was that virtually all of the references that came up were in "trackbacks." This means that the language appeared on someone else's site, not ours.
I conclude from this that the survey was pretty badly flawed. Not only did it fail to distinguish between blog entries and comments, which is at least defensible, it failed to distinguish between words used on the site in question, and words used on a different site, which is not defensible.
Having said that, I think the original point still stands, even if this survey does not precisely quantify it. There is no doubt that many liberals often use offensive language on the web, while conservatives rarely do. Some of this probably has to do with age; many liberals who write on the web are just kids, so immaturity is not surprising. I think some of it has to do with anger; liberalism, in today's political world, is closely associated with anger and, in far too many cases, hate. And I think that to some degree, it is symptomatic of the sloppy thinking that is common on so many liberal web sites. It is, after all, a great deal easier to string swear words together as an insult, than to string ideas together logically, as an argument.
UPDATE: This post generated a surprising number of comments, most of them from liberals who argued 1) that liberals cuss more on their web sites because they have more to be angry about, which confirms the point I made in the last paragraph of my post, or 2) that it is contradictory for me to say that this survey's methodology was flawed, but the conclusion that liberals use more bad language on their web sites is nevertheless true. The latter is a logical error of such stunning proportions that it tends to confirm my observation that sloppy thinking is common on the left.
Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...
Mo's Blog Roll
Resources
Seven Words We Don't Use
Posted Mar 1st 2007 4:08PM by John Hinderaker
Filed under: Power Line, Media, Democrats
Mo's Video
The Sound of a Smoke-Free Barack...Almost two years ago we speculated on how Barack Obama's voice would change if he stopped smoking. ...
Most Popular Stories
- Don't Like Goodbyes...
- Pittsburgh Steelers: Is it Time to get some Cheerleaders?
- How NOT to give an Oscar Acceptance Speech
- Could Jim Belushi Win the Nobel Peace Prize?
- Spring Break Sexy T-Shirt Removal Training!
- Quest for the Crown 5: Plastic Wrap to Make you Less Fat!
- Quest for the Crown 4: Work Those Heels!
Most Commented On
-
Coming Soon
Recent Comments
- Saint Brian the Godless on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- Roert Dean on General Clark is Absolutely Right!
- mac on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- mac on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- Jerry Brown on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- FL Chick on Jesus Statue Stolen By Dog Haters?
- andreawalker419 on Breastfeeding an Eight-Year-Old?
Mo's Bio
Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.
Top News Headlines
Political Machine Blog
- Afghanistan Surge To Include Thousands More Private Contractors
- Matt Lewis on MSNBC: Debating Scwarzenegger vs. Palin on Climate Change
- Should We Fake It to Make It? A Woman Who Writes Like a Man
- Blunt, Carnahan in Tight Race for Missouri Senate Seat
- Chaos Theory - Hope, We Hardly Knew Ye
- Whitman Leads GOP Governor Race in California, But Trails Brown in November Match-Up
- 'People of Color' Label Lame on Every Level
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 3)
16. Cuss words are a perfectly natural expression of the shock, disgust and horror one feels upon learning that the CIA has sent innocent detainees to foreign countries to be tortured... that the U.S. is now channeling money to Sunni terrorist groups with ties to al-Qaeda... that Bush seems dead set on war with Iran despite the opposition of Congress, the public and most of his generals... that scientific studies are being censored or suppressed because their findings do not support the administration's political positions... that the Pentagon is trying to cut back on services and benefits for wounded veterans... etc.
Peter Gaffney at 5:46AM on Mar 2nd 2007
17.
There are no dirty words. Words are neutral, and it depends on the context they're used in whether someone should be offended or not. This study is a silly waste of time.
In other words: Who gives a shit?
alexandrite at 7:00AM on Mar 2nd 2007
18. from post #4 "Saying Bush is full of humbug ...." LOLOL. Now THAT is funny. Hinderaker is full of humbug too, I see. Does he even look at my favorite example of right-wing nuttery, LGF? That, my friends, is stringing together insanity with a flair of the potty-mouth.
Joeschmo at 7:11AM on Mar 2nd 2007
19. It's the anger.
I'm a normally mild mannered sexagenarian veteran but when I contemplate an administration which has committed us to a counter-productive bloodbath in Iraq, disgraced the flag by its indulgence in torture and trampled the constitution, I sometimes resort to the lexicon I mastered in service to my country.
BroD at 7:02AM on Mar 3rd 2007
20. Kids these days use more bad words then anyone. To say they are liberals in order to create a false information study is both ignorant and immature on the part of those that did so.
Swear words seem to be the common language of todays youth.
This LIBERAL says there are plenty in the dictionary and you don't have to use disgusting language to get your point across.
Now someone needs to tell those people to get a life.
Besides Bush and Cheney are both well versed in swear words.
Fran at 9:18AM on Mar 2nd 2007
21. Perhaps liberals are a bit more free with the "dirty words." On the flip side, conservatives seem to be more personally hateful in their speech. I choose cursing. This seems to be another attempt to cast stones when there's a log in your own eye.
Sally at 9:20AM on Mar 2nd 2007
22. If Mary Foley had a blog, you can be sure that he'd refrain from any "dirty talk".
DM at 9:27AM on Mar 2nd 2007
23. While Hinderaker admits that the study is fatally flawed, he stands behind its results... If anyone had any doubts left that the radical right-wing is intellectually dishonest, this would remove them all.
Devil's Advocate at 9:27AM on Mar 2nd 2007
24. Im perplexed by the attack of Repubs. on anything or anyone they consider liberal. Seems like they are the lord high executioner and consider themselves in a class above the half of America.
bob U. at 3:32PM on Mar 2nd 2007
25. Another astute analysis from the gentleman who gave the world this world-famous gem: "It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile."
narboink at 10:44AM on Mar 2nd 2007
26. Sloppy thinking? You mean like that on starting a war in Iraq? Or maybe saying a survey is flawed and accepting its results? Or maybe using "everyone knows" as evidence. Denial of global warming?
Hate? like the diatribes against gays? All the false accusations against immigrants? the hatred toward Islam? The push for war? Baseless statements against "liberals"
Get a mirror pal!! Or maybe a brain.
Tom Walsh at 10:53AM on Mar 2nd 2007
27. Flawed surveys notwithstanding, "there is no doubt" (as you put it) that some of the absolutely filthiest, hateful, and threatening words to appear in cyberspace come from fundamentalist Christians in their flame-emails to those who dare challenge the fundies' belief systems.
Just ask American Atheists, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, People for the American Way, et. al. For unmitigated written bile, you gotta go a long way to beat an angry fundamentalist Christian.
Forrest Prince at 11:01AM on Mar 2nd 2007
28. Your full of the Brown stuff!!
Lindy
Donald Lowell at 4:43PM on Mar 2nd 2007
29. reading these comments showed no surprises from the Liberals. Besides using the objectionable words more often, and one just has to look at the sites to see that is true, Liberals really get in the gutter and name call everyone who does not share their opinion. Liberals certainly believe in free speech for Liberals and no one else can have a differing opinion. I do remeber one point and that was that very seldom was Clinton's daughter talked about in aneg sense, but the trash that has come out about the Bush's daughters is uncalled for and very crude and vulgar. But that is just a small example on how the Liberals act, I was careful not to say think, used word act.
robert okane at 11:44AM on Mar 2nd 2007
30. liberal left wing nuts are the reason our society is deteriorating. they would rather help dirtbags, criminals and illegals while shitting on the majority of americans
brian p at 11:46AM on Mar 2nd 2007