Gotta say, I wince every time I hear that line (and I always have)
I always have, too, Ken.
But I don't deny that I used the word when I was a kid, and every other kid I know did also.
Regarding the song, I hear it being said in
this context of the lyrics: "I'm acting like a child because you're getting everything handed to you and it's all coming easy for you, so I'm jealous and angry".
In other words, I hear it like Knopfler is a character and didn't write the lyrics first-person.
Archie Bunker said things that also made me wince, but I don't hold Carrol O'Connor responsible, because he's playing a character who, by using such rhetoric, forces us to confront issues.
Anyway, because of that, the lyric doesn't bother me in the same way it would as if said with venom.
