Like Telling an Italian Not to Wear Cologne

J.D. Wetherspoon, a U.K. bar/restaurant chain, is trying to ban swearing in its 600-plus pubs. Press reaction has not been favorable.

Via Tim Blair.

Comments

[Steve in CO]

F***ing Brilliant innit?!

I did notice that nowhere was there a concern for the "right to free speech." Kinda foreign concept eh guvna?

[Steve in CO]

I can see it now. Some seriously pissed (Brit for drunk) patron telling a pub employee to "fffuchhkk off!" When asked to quit swearing. I am thinking of someone like the surly character in the movie Trainspotting, who's joy in life was starting a pub brawl. Forget the character's name ... I think its like Bigsby or something. Aw shit, I forget ... ooops.

🙂

[Ira Weatheral]

As a NYC resident, I'd take the no-swearing if I could light up a fucking cigarette!

[J.Smith]

No Swearing
No Smoking
No Wolf-whistling
No Double-parking
No Jay-walking
No Nail-clippers
No Skateboarding
No Girlie mags at Walmart
(Phew! This list is much too long to go on)

But, hey, welcome to Western Civilization.

[Matt Welch]

Actually, swearing has been grounds for ejection from Anaheim Stadium for years and years. A rule that takes spectacular effect every time the filthy Red Sox come to town....

[Warren]

You are all missing the key concept here. This is a PRIVATELY held business making rules for their own customers. Anyone who doesn't like it can take their custom somewhere else. It is exactly the kind of self-regulation we should support, not at all like bans codified in law. Free speech just isn't relevant.

The ban inside Anaheim Stadium is more interesting. There's a good deal of entanglement between government and private interests. A good example of why government shouldn't get so entangled.

[Julian]

Actually, some of the "secret bars" in Manhattan have rules like that... including a ban on hitting on female customers unless you've been formally introduced by the bartender.

[twistedmerkin]

Good point, Warren.

[Lancelot]

Great! So nice 'n retro. Now we have to be formally introduced again, do we?

Before you know it, guys will be opening car doors for gals again; and gals will be dropping their hankies on the sidewalk again.

But I'll be damned if I'm going to have to throw my expensive coat over a mud puddle.

(Just kidding.) In fact, I'd love to see a return of good ol' romanticism, chivalry, and courtesy.

[K.Arthur]

Take note, collectivist site-peekers! Most genuine libertarians do have a romantic streak, believe it or not.

Right on, Lancelot!

[Anonymous]

Pluto, the middle ages do not have a monopoly on "romanticism, chivalry, and courtesy."

[Plutarck]

"In fact, I'd love to see a return of good ol' romanticism, chivalry, and courtesy."

Do we get to rape and kill peasants, too? Will minor offenses become public duels to the death regularly? Will there be be a castle with eightscore young blondes, all between sixteen and nineteen-and-a-half, cut off in from the world with no one to protect them, with nothing to do but bathing, dressing, undressing, and making exciting underwear?

...sorry, that got a bit silly, didn't it?

[Anonymous]

I once walked into a bathroom in a JD Wetherspoon as a man snorted a line of coke.

[Jim]

Glad to see we didn't get a bunch more posts debating the whole 'libertarians are hypocrites because this is private property', other than one. Yeah, yeah, it's private property and they can do what they want. That said...

Banning swearing from bars is kind of like banning thong underwear from a strip club. Kind of stupid. I've always thought of bars as a place where adults can go to have a good time and speak their minds frankly. Maybe there's an untapped market, however, for hard language free bars. Only time will tell...

[joe]

Matt,

F%^( you, Sunshine Boy! You try going 85 years without a championship and see you f^&*(%*)* clean your language is!!!

He he he.

[joe]

Does this headline mean Italians get to pre-empt right wing Christians as suffering from "the Last Acceptable Prejudice?"

[david f]

hey joe --

come to chicago and try that line... just cuz buckner couldn't field (that happened to the cubs in the NLCS in 1984)... how many times has boston made it to the series since 1959 (when the white sux (sic) last made it from chicago)?

🙂
drf
p.s., do your special powers apply to baseball, too? mine don't, that's why sammy needed a corked bat)

[Ruth Katie]

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