Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

John Harris has been blinded on the road to Damascus and all you miserable gits can do is mock him.

fuckim i'm sure he's got private health

In keeping with his catholic tastes, Albarn – a passionate fan of the music of west Africa – was performing alongside Bobby Womack, the rap trio De La Soul, and Snoop Dogg

Didn't know Snoop was Cameroonian tbh

didn't know albarn was catholic tbh

the rap trio De La Soul

that explains that snoop dogg track about always going to half five mass on a sunday because your parents would forget you hadn't been

C'mon, Albarn wrote a song called "Popescene" ffs

popescene but not heard

might take harris more seriously if he sorted out his shit 1978 grange hill haircut

anyway don't read the comments, don't read the comments, aaaaaaaaargh i read the comments

jesus...can't stand kira cochrane, it's like she sat down one day and realised she had nothing to write about so would beat the drum for the most obvious takes on "women's issues" imaginable...

i heard that haye exchange on the today programme and had to wonder if he's the morrissey of boxing

making gangrape comments in front of his hometown

In all walks of life, rape jokes and rape analogies are becoming commonplace

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh...

It's never a good sign when an evening ends with you and your friends bellowing, "No more rape jokes! No more rape jokes!" from the back of a bemused crowd.

i mean...okay i'll bite, as much as i don't think a rape joke is by default funny, and probably unfunny almost all of the time, i am pretty sure this sort of reaction is why comedians would make rape jokes.

as for people using "rape" for various other meanings, isn't it just due to the impact of the word rather than any actual lack of understanding about rape? i mean if you look at the issue surely rape is becoming more recognised as a serious crime rather than less, at the same time as the word has begun to be used more casually?

isn't it just a matter of language...words which are taboo just can't retain their impact, regardless of their meaning.

Wot, no Alan Pardew? Personally, I'm not aware of much casual use of the word "rape", hardly comparable with its use in the 60s + 70s for example.

amazed no pardew or souness!

we need to return to the days when nobody used the word "rape" ever obviously. there were no recorded rapes then!

haven;t read the article but yeah people use it way too casually and it's weird, but it's up to them really, if they want to. stand-up comedians are the worst people.

My problem obv. is I'm not hanging around with enough wankers to have noticed the increase in casual use

it's a bit like how 'prison rape jokes' became this really easy go-to on panel quizzes. people who make these jokes are massive, gaping arseholes, but i'm not 'offended' by them, just kind of pitying.

patient zero:

http://britlitwiki.wikispaces.com/file/view/rock.jpg/143866901/rock.jpg

good work getting "prison rape" and "massive gaping arseholes" in the same post
xp

isn't it just a matter of language...words which are taboo just can't retain their impact, regardless of their meaning.

really well put tbh, and lack of ability to express this clearly is what gets me into trouble in other threads on similar subjects tbh.

yeah, I think the rise I've noticed in actual rape references and jokes is much more troublesome than 'rape' as an intensifier, stupid and thoughtless as that may be. I've been at pub quizzes where literally half of the team names were 'hilarious' rape jokes, made me wish I had deflated their party by having a team name citing an unpleasant rape statistic or some such.

What weird unpleasant people you all seem to associate with

'Rapey' has been a favoured descriptive term for about 10 years now.

Descriptive term for weird creepy stalkerish males on internet forums? I've only ever heard/seen it used here.

it's a bit like how 'prison rape jokes' became this really easy go-to on panel quizzes

And every cop/detective drama, no matter how high or low brow, will add a reference.

First saw 'rapey' and 'hatefuck' on Popbitch first, possibly during their era of the pram-face.

the tolkeinian cosmology of popbitch

Joe, back then the word 'rape' meant 'kidnapping'. 'Rape' got its current meaning through a misunderstanding of what went on during the Rape of the Sabine Women.

And, outside of the Internet, I haven't heard anyone make a joke about rape in years.

Rush Limbaugh warned his listeners, "get ready to get gang-raped again"

hat tip to graun for not contextualizing that

And, outside of the Internet, I haven't heard anyone make a joke about rape in years.

― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Friday, September 10, 2010 2:47 PM (50 seconds ago) Bookmark

there's... an... outside...?

Jokes about non-specific rape, that is. I still hear a prison rape joke once in a blue moon. And this is the only place I hear 'rapey', I'm assuming this is a Britishism.

there's... an... outside...?

Yeah. It's awful. Stay inside, I beg you.

internet to syntax, dignity: 'grtggra'

I'm assuming this is a Britishism.

No, an Internetism

I've heard the term used in a "humorous" or ott descriptive way a bit over the last few years, prior to that, never, really. Last IRL instance I can remember was when one of the office staff at the last job's car broke down on the way to work, and she arrived in a bit of a state of high emotion. when recounting this, the (female) service department described her thus "you should have seen the state she was in, she looked like she'd been RAPED!" (emphasis was on the last word) I didn't think it was cool, I guess I should have complained, but the manager was a fucking psycho, who delighted in making the service staff's lives hell so I bottled it (she got sacked about a month after this, a bunch of service techs all handed in their notice b/c of her psycho-ness) anyway, I recognise what the guardian article's about, and don't like it.

jesus i'm no saint with language but pash that's pretty wtf

Joe, back then the word 'rape' meant 'kidnapping'. 'Rape' got its current meaning through a misunderstanding of what went on during the Rape of the Sabine Women.

not really, the modern meaning had been established for centuries by the 18th c. pope's alluding to helen of troy's kidnap etc, but he's also jokingly comparing the violation of having some hair cut off against your will with being raped.

It was the actual epitome of a dysfunctional workplace, darra, I shd maybe recount my experineces there on 77 before i forget it all, dunno, maybe better to let it fade away. I hate being unemployed but it's better than working for that lot.

aven;t read the article but yeah people use it way too casually and it's weird, but it's up to them really, if they want to. stand-up comedians are the worst people.

― The sulky expression from the hilarious "Aubrey Plaza" persona (history mayne)

agree w this, genetally, especially as regards to stand up comedians. I guess it shouldn't really be surprising. when i worked for the PA company we ofthen put on a PA for stand-ups at a couple of regular nights in n'cle. The ONLY one I remember being nice was Jo Brand, every other one wether national or local was an arrogant, unbearable motherfucker.

Related to the article, and to the guardian and other media generally, I hate seeing the existence of stupid facebook groups, and bollocks on twitter reported as if it were newsworthy in its own right, or as if it proved anything. i guess it's probably a way of doing a voxpop while being too lazt to get away from your desk, IDK, all it seems to probe to me is that such sites are a way for stupid, bored people to find common cause in saying stupid, ignorant things.

First saw 'rapey' and 'hatefuck' on Popbitch first, possibly during their era of the pram-face.

― maintenant avec plus de fromage (suzy), Friday, 10 September 2010 13:43 (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I always think of hatefuck as an Americanism but not sure I have any real basis for this... 'rapey', and god help me for remembering it this vividly, was on Popbitch however, iirc a quote from a 'source' about reality show crepe Paul Danan

"hatefuck" is much, much older than Popbitch. Dunno how old, but e.g. Pussy Galore, mid 80s

Ohhh yeah it is Pussy Galore but tbh I never heard anyone use 'hatefuck' outside discussion of Groovy Hate Fuck until the term wound up with Popbitch webmongs.

'hatefuck' is the sort of term that needed the internet etc in order to become popularized

Yeah, I should imagine it is easier to type casually than it is to say out loud.

the harrison/haye interview on today was fucking mind-boggling btw. best argument for banning boxing i've heard in a long time. seems to have been redacted from the archives though.

I reckon the fight will be a good advert for banning boxing.

haha

Not at all unique to the Guardian, but I'd hoped headlines like this would be on the decrease:
Man shot five because of way wife cooked his eggs

to which my automatic reaction is "No, he shot them because he was mentally unstable and chose to kill them".
Do you think this kind of headline contributes in any way to the notion that an arbitrary action can cause you to be shot in the head, or am I being ridiculous?

there's a british/american divide in how that's being reported, or there was as of last night