"Paris Hilton pal Brandon Davis's rant about Lindsay Lohan is one of the most loathsome verbal attacks we've heard. See it on blah-blah-blah.com."
—Newsweek's recent Blog Watch column
Ok I gave it away. There used to be such a thing that is apparently so uncommon today I can't even think of what to call it. Propriety? Grace? Seemliness?
If something's "one of the most loathsome verbal attacks" you've ever heard, you shouldn't be promoting it to people. Chances are there is slander and detraction in it, and propagating it is at best in bad taste, at worse a complicity in slander. You just encourage people to satisfy their basest motives.
Detraction is a forgotten vice. I don't know when I learned the definition of it and learned that it was wrong, but it was after college. Slander is when you say something to another about a third party that is not true but is damaging to their reputation. Detraction is when you say something (not well known) to another (who has no business knowing) about a third party that is true but is damaging to their reputation. For example, suppose your brother got a speeding ticket, and you decide to tell your neighbor about it. Most likely your neighbor has no business knowing (unless your brother works for your neighbor and drives as part of his job). Or someone you know is promiscuous, and you tell a new friend about this. If you say something bad about another person to someone, there should be a justifiable reason for it, and a need to know on their part.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
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