Profanities

While reading a Folha de S.Paulo article on messages between Bolsonaro, his son and the pastor Silas Malafaia, I stumbled upon:

‘VTNC SEU INGRATO DO CARALHO’!, escreveu Eduardo em maiúsculas, usando a sigla que significa “vai tomar no c…”

The sentence could be translated as: ‘FU YOU UNGRATEFUL ASSHOLE’!, Eduardo wrote in all caps, using the acronym that means “f… you.”

It’s amusing how the newspaper (of record) quotes the swear words in full, explains one of them, but uses only the first letter. It reads like a joke. Obviously, anyone reading it knows what VTNC means and the article is about nothing but Eduardo Bolsonaro cursing at his father—which is a rather questionable topic, IMO. The rest of the text is littered with so many types of profanities that this self-censorship jumps out at you.

Hiding these words under asterisks or ellipses as if they would magically safe is laughable. If you want to curse, curse! If not, don’t curse! Just don’t treat me like a kid.