Profanity

[Hambone]

Profanity isn't all bad though. When used in moderation it can create extremlely desired affects, such as heightened attention, emphasis, or rebukes ( ).

[Dennis]

erg yes i know this is about using them today and i said they shouldnt be used but i also brodend this to other things to like the future. im just saying people make a fuss about soemthing that in my own eyes and knowledge will be diff in the future anyway. since only one person here actually understands what i am saying i will no longer comment. right now id be more worried about rapists, murderes, and terrorists then profane words. but we r all allowed our own opinions about something and this si mine.

[AceMcbanon]

Tape my point is these words are only made offensive becasue people choose to be offended by them. If people could say *sh-t* everytime they wanted people would quickly stop using it every other word like they do now. It would no longer be fun and against the establishment to say these words.

 

In other words becuse people chose to make these words offensive they are used more oten then if they were not offensive.

[Guest UberNewb]

Yeah, I know, I said I wouldn't be back. I lied. Sue me.

 

I just wanted to know why no one else that said swearing isn't so bad got accused of being pro-bombs-in-your-garage or pro-poison-your-body-with-narcotics. I guess I just got shot at first cause I was the first one to peek my head out of the foxhole. Hate to say it, Fatty, but I was genuinely offended by what you said. I could hardly believe that you would say such things. I was judged by you because of my belief. Don't worry about an apology, as I am pretty thick skinned (to go with the thick skull, y'see?), but 'judge not, lest ye be judged.' Yeah, I think that one was in the bible. Just think before you go spouting off like that next time, okay? I'd rather you called me a 'dumb mo--------er'.

 

UberNewb

[Guest [DOH]TaPe]

MaleModel,Sep 18 2002, 06:06 PM]right now id be more worried about rapists, murderes, and terrorists then profane words.

Rightfully so! Nobody here is chastising you for cussing in your everyday life! We shouldn't forget the lesser problems on the mere basis that there are larger fish to fry (not trying to symbolize that I am in favor of capitol punishment ) - the question is why do you cuss, not what is the best way we can make fun of you and punish you for using profanity

[FatGuyInALittleCoat]

I am offended by profanity because I was conditioned to be. But I must say I don’t really understand why it is offensive. I don’t understand why one word describing an object or an act should be more offensive than any other word. I can sit around and talk about fecal matter all day. It may be unpleasant, but when I start using one-syllable words it suddenly becomes offensive.

 

I do find “curse words� to be overused, trite, and unimaginative and they reflect somewhat on the user. Beyond that they’re just words. I think the offending part is something else.

 

To use FatB’s example of someone cursing at your mother, you don’t object to it because you don’t think your mother can’t handle it. You’re not angry because you think this is the first time she’s hearing these words. She’s not going to burst into tears and her head will not explode. But you do have a problem with the lack of respect and the hostility being shown. That’s what you react to. If we had no spoken language we would read body language to detect these things (you can do this anyway but its more of a learned skill than an instinct in humans). Curse words are a red flag for these this (this is learned too).

 

This is where ignorance comes in. If you are ignorant of this fact you may curse left and right and not meaning anything by it. But people are going to be offended because they automatically infer a lack of respect whether its there or not.

 

New words are already becoming offensive. Ever hear of “Political Correctness�. I cannot call the race of men Christopher Columbus found when he came here what he called them. I cannot use the British term for cigarette unless I am from there. I cannot use the expressions different races have adopted for themselves unless I am one of them. And there is at least one word that I cannot use to describe happiness. Languages evolve. You cannot deny it anymore than you can stop it. New words and new meanings for current words are added to the dictionary each year. Curse words are in unabridged dictionaries.

[Playaa]

well put FatGuy, and an exceptional point.

 

the only thing I have against curse words is that it will cause some to look down on me, and most who I am around don't want to hear it. It's as simple as that. I don't believe it's a sin, just pointless.

 

btw, I also view Political Correctness to be pointless.....I find it offensive that if I call someone the n-bomb I'm being insulting, when I call someone black I'm coming borderline to insulting. But no one has ever called me a Caucasian Male or European American. I firmly believe that racism will NEVER leave this world, but holding it on a pedastal; even a pedastal of wrongness, it's only going to make it worse.

 

I'm human....you're human......we're all human.....that's that.

[Guest Smoke]

I have been known to have a filthy mouth. I'm not certain where it came from, but I can thank Mmmm server for the decline if not absense of it.

 

I never realized how often I cussed until I started watching myself on the server, and saw how bad my mouth really was. Ever since I started playing here again I have been watching what I say all the time.

 

I'm tired of the wanton use of the F-word, or any other cuss word. when i hear little kids drop profanity it makes my skin crawl, and I can only believe its my generation and preceding generations that have made it ok.

 

I don't think its ok anymore, there seems to be no words people can use to express how angry they are anymore. its upsetting in away.

 

I don't want profanity to be stopped I just think that it should be used in its correct context. That context i'm not quite sure of :-)

 

Smoke

[soul .gc]

LOL..just read all these. Swearing, Cursing, profanity, dirty mouth...whatever you wanna call it is something I sure do a lot of in CS. I also swear when out with the "guys" or when really drunk...which is usually with the guys. Does this make me ignorant? Depends on your opinion of what ignorant is...I however am relatively smart making quite a bit of cash each year so I would tend to disagree with you.

 

Fat makes an argument about swearing in different situations. This is about how you act in society. To play the Devils Advocate...why should Ic are what other people think of me? It is not a Sin to swear...only to take the Lord's name in vain. If I want to say A-s-s instead of Butt it actually sounds much better to me. Should you swear at work? Sure if you are a construction guy or some blue collar worker it is probably much more ok. If you are white collar and sit in an office all day then you probably should not when folks can hear you..unless you like looking for a job.

 

But never should someone swearing be correlated to ignorance. Some say they cannot find better terms to describe situations...I think most of the time it describes them crystal clear.

[Cyklik]

I got bored, so I decided to read older threads. I felt like maybe I could contribute by saying that the F word originated from the Old English culture I believe, and it was more of a good thing back then. "Fornication Under Consent of the King." Basically there was a written document that said that, and you posted it on your door or something. This is all something I heard from someone who researched it, I never actually did the research myself.

Also, the word Damn is a very Biblical word. It basically means being condemned to go to Hell.

[Playaa]

Soul, you were probably referring to one of my posts about the ignorance thing....

I'm sorry if that came across the wrong way. I know PLENTY of ppl who are 1000's of times smarter than I'll ever be that cuss. All I was saying is that due to preconceved notions, when I hear someone curse, it makes me view them as less intelligent.........and I feel that other ppl make this same assumption which is why I don't see the point of (constant) cursing......

I can almost agree with Smoke and you............that if the words held their true meanings still and could still be used to just express a strong emotion then they wouldn't be so bad (bad meaning how society views them)......but then again if the words still held the true meaning, they wouldn't be considered vulgar or "common" and then no one would consider them bad.....

[Guest [Rangers] Word]

I agree with Playaa on the point that cussing makes ppl seem ignorant. Not necessarily the ppl who cuss when they burn themselves or stub their toe, that's just expressing a strong emotion as several people stated, but ppl that cuss in ever sentence and seem to have a vocabulary made up of 4-letter words. Most ppl do cuss sometimes (the last time I got tk'd comes to mind), but when I think back on what I said, it doesn't bring back good feelings of righting the wrong done to me, it just makes me look vulgar. Profanity does have a purpose, I just don't think that purpose is to use it in our everyday conversations and as our sole adjective to describe everything. As people overstate words they eventually lose some of their meaning, and may even cease to be proanity just from overuse. Some ppl I knew in Basic Training used the F*** word so much that they used it to describe things they liked as as well as hated. I had to keep backing up and asking, "So you actually like your new car, right?" because they had used profanity to describe it. Maybe I just don't understand all the different uses for profanity, but it seems to me that it could be used a lot less and no harm would come from it.

[Guest [Rangers] Word]

Just as another point, the only kind of profanity that actually makes me mad or offends me is when someone uses profanity to describe the Lord or takes the Lord's name in vain. The other kinds just make people look rather foolish. To paint a meant picture, we've all seen arguments where the guy/gal that is loosing eventually ends up saying something like "Well f*** you!" this seems to end the discussion, because it's almost like admitting defeat, because the only argument they have is, technically, turn around and take it up the a** because I don't have a good argument. If people actually took the literal meaning of profanity they wouldn't say them, because they don't make sense. One more example, when people tend to hear bad news they say somthing like, "Well sh#T" Now why would anyone say something that means 'feces' to describe the bad news. I could understand if they said "I feel like sh*t," but then who knows what sh*t really feels like, maybe it feels pretty good being sh*T.

 

As a mental note sorry for the profanity, I used it to make a point.