Now we're getting into an interesting subject. LOL


Anybody else ever wonder WHY anytime somebody is photographed or recorded flipping the bird, and it is blacked out, or electronically scrambled, or whatever? They have to censor one finger, but if you give somebody the whole arm, they allow that. So HOW is giving somebody the finger so much MORE offensive than giving them the whole damn arm? I never got that.

I suppose it's because of the universal meaning of is "fuck you" and the censors think that it’s the same as actually saying it. I prefer the Carlin observation that to truly insult someone you should tell them "un-fuck you".

Supernova wrote:

Now we're getting into an interesting subject. LOL


Anybody else ever wonder WHY anytime somebody is photographed or recorded flipping the bird, and it is blacked out, or electronically scrambled, or whatever? They have to censor one finger, but if you give somebody the whole arm, they allow that. So HOW is giving somebody the finger so much MORE offensive than giving them the whole damn arm? I never got that.

Because we live in a PC society that believes in "good words" and "bad words" and "obscene gestures" that they want to "protect" children and people with sensitive personalities from. We live in a very prudish, old fashioned society that believes in censorship for emotional and impulsive reasons. Whoever said that the human race was logical? (Star Trek 4)

captainbryce wrote:

Because we live in a PC society that believes in "good words" and "bad words" and "obscene gestures" that they want to "protect" children and people with sensitive personalities from. We live in a very prudish, old fashioned society that believes in censorship for emotional and impulsive reasons. Whoever said that the human race was logical? (Star Trek 4)

Yeah but it still doesn't make sense, if they're going to go through all the trouble of blocking out one finger, why do they allow the whole arm to be seen?

Ah, I think the light bulb just went on and I see your point. Do you mean that even though they obscure just the offending digit, the message should still be clear..."hey that person just flipped the bird!"? I don't know why. Probably some stupid technicality.

I think it is because of the work going into blurring things out. I heard years ago on show about the show Real World that blurring out costs a lot of money. So, maybe cost is a reason. Though with all the blurring they do nowadays, I bet that a way to do it cheaper has been discovered.