Now there’s a word to raise hackles. At least among English speakers.
(I’m told the equivalent in Québécois, in terms of emotional impact, has more to do with religion than sex. But that’s another story.)

I’ve observed that F— is bandied about these days quite freely. I pass a roadside banner almost daily: “F— Carney,” recently updated from “F— Trudeau.”

What the f—?! Why am I subjected to this spurt of poison, posted on private property but plainly polluting the public view?

Our friends and neighbours in local government, more and more often, are targeted by abusers. A spate of “F” posters went up recently around Bury, singling out one particular municipal employee.
The abusive language toward municipal workers, both elected and hired, goes beyond signage. In the news this past year are women in municipal office who are leaving politics because of harassment, including the mayors of Gatineau and Sherbrooke.

Last year, Quebec’s Municipal Affairs Minister reported that since 2021 a growing number of elected officials have quit or left politics because of intimidation and harassment, about 10% by December 2024. Quebec has even set up a helpline for municipal politicians.

The abusive climate also affects municipal employees; several in the Haut-Saint-François have privately said they left their jobs because of intimidation from individuals in our communities.

The “F” word and other epithets tell us mostly about the mud slinger’s own state of mind: stressed, no doubt, as many of us are. We’re living in a time when SNAFU (Situation Normal: All Fucked Up) applies. But relieving our distress by throwing verbal stones only helps upgrade our SNAFU status to FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition).

Next door to Canada is a great big bully with a nasty tongue. We seem to have given ourselves licence to emulate or tolerate his behaviour. But we have reason to reject abuse, and to do so openly when we see it happening.

I’m reading a tiny handbook by a historian on surviving our times. It’s called On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder. The 9th lesson surprised me: “Be kind to our language.” Snyder writes about how propagandists use catch phrases and epithets to limit language and thought. He cites Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, in which the regime burned books and limited language “by eliminating ever more words with each edition of the official dictionary.”

He summarizes the 9th lesson like this: “Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey the thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the Internet. Read books.”

Hmm. Back to the Internet: Wikipedia offers a detailed history of the “F” word and cites research suggesting that eating processed foods puts less wear and tear on our teeth. In adults, this leads to an overbite which facilitates producing “f” sounds, “and humorously, cleared the way for words like ‘Fuck’.”
Well, okay. Let’s eat local, fresh food. But, really, a lot of different words begin with “f”―our overbites don’t really explain the tyranny of intimidation.
Freedom!