in the last 6 months or so, i’ve noticed “fuck cancer” on bumper stickers and in youtube comments. i hate it.
ooooohh, edgy
why do i hate the expression? for a few reasons. first, it strikes me as a wannabe redneck thing. the only people who would sport a bumper sticker that boldly says ‘fuck’ are people who want to be perceived as rednecks (i believe that most true rednecks don’t feel the need to advertise their lifestyle in the way that wannabe rednecks do), and the only thing worse than truly ignorant people is people trying to be ignorant.
second, i don’t like seeing it on a bumper sticker because ‘fuck’ is still a word that is not publicly acceptable. i don’t think it makes sense to make an exception for that word just because it’s being picked up by a cause that people are sympathetic to. you may as well start making bumper stickers that say “fuck world hunger,” “fuck pollution,” “fuck rape,” “fuck slavery,” “fuck racism”…the list goes on. are we suddenly going to allow the public use of ‘fuck’ as long as we’re talking about causes people are generally supportive of? of course, it should go without saying that i believe branding any words as taboo is ridiculous, but that’s beside the point. my point is the hypocrisy of this particular usage.
third, i think we need to look deeper into the issue, like why cancer is so prevalent now. i think we would find that the reason everyone is getting cancer is because we have created a world full of carcinogenic shit — plastic, radiation, UV rays, pollution, pesticides. since the problem is actually all our own fault, we shouldn’t be saying “fuck cancer” — we should really be saying, “fuck the human race for making cancer such an epidemic.”
paradoxically, that’s a rallying cry i can fully get behind.
crimson highway 