From George Carlin To Bari Weiss: What Are The New ‘Seven Dirty Words?’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
New York Times opinion writer and editor Bari Weiss is coming out with a book, as reported by CNN’s Reliable Sources.
The oft-controversial Jewish columnist will publish “The New Seven Dirty Words” with Holt in winter 2020.
The book appears based on a discussion she gave at the Chautauqua Institution in July, with the same title. It was inspired by comedian George Carlin’s 1972 performance, “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” after which he was arrested. His skit eventually led to the enactment of rules around indecency in media.
In her talk, Weiss argued that today, in a time when the president routinely says ‘vile’ things about Mexican, Haitians, women and many other groups and individual people, those original foul words have lost their ability to shock.
Now, she said, there is a new set of words, ‘far more explosive.’ They are: imagination, humility, proportion, empathy, judgment, reason and doubt.
Not quite Carlin-esque, but certainly intriguing.
The New Seven Dirty Words. https://t.co/HZ2sB58UYG
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) July 27, 2018
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
