[Barty]

When I watch TV or movies, I always look away whenever someone is about to be stuck by a needle -- drug injection, body piercing, etc. I watch plenty of horror movies and I am pretty desensitized to cinematic violence and gore, but I just cannot stand looking at scenes involving needles, even though I know it is fake and the body part being pierced is just a prop (I hope). Now I could try to avoid watching any movie that may contain such a scene, but then I would be depriving myself of many movies I'd otherwise enjoy.

I imagine many people feel the same way regarding the use of certain words, whether it is profanity, racial or ethnic slurs, or blasphemous language. I see a place for an app or some type of plug in that blanks out words on the fly per the reader's specification. For example, replacing the n word with n******. The person using the app is not saying the word does not belong in books, or that the book should not be read by him or any other person, or that he should not have to read it, or that the author or the book is racist, or that the book should be censored or sanitized, or that he or anyone else should pretend the word is not in the book. But simply that for his own use, he prefer not to see the word printed in full throughout the book.

You may say what's the big deal, it's just a word, grow up, you know what the word is, what's the difference between setting the word spelled out versus *****. Our brain and body have their own logic. We may intellectually know one thing is the same as the other, but we don't react the same way.

Problem with culture war is everybody is out for blood fighting every last inch of ground, when most of the time discretion is what is called for.