Matthew Yglesias

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Publications that don’t let you write “fuck” or “shit” also tend to observe practices that discourage mentioning those words — just like in the Harry Potter universe you can neither use nor mention Voldemort’s name. That’s how taboos work, it’s a non-semantic issue. — PolitiTweet.org

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

@adamdavidson Oh I see, you misunderstood what I meant. I’m saying that if you can’t say “fuck” on the air at NPR you also can’t say “and then said ‘you can’t say “fuck” on the air.’” The use/mention distinction doesn’t matter. — PolitiTweet.org