Poll: Insulting Vocabulary

[Ichimaru]

I was thinking recently about how in the last 5-10 years, the term geek has become a non-insult. I realize that most people here would take getting called a geek in stride, possibly even as high praise. There are other words that have dropped off the radar talking about insults, as in, dork, nerd and many others. What I have noticed is that nowadays people have made insults much more vulgar. Everything seems to become racist and involve cursing. I've even heard children using inappropriate language that I don't remember hearing as little as a few years ago. Am I just listening harder, or have other people noticed an increase in vulgar language. I'm also from America(this may have something to do with it or not).
I apologize for any grammatical errors, I don't usually write very well.

 

[BleachedBlind]

I don't think a language ever becomes more or less vulgar. Languages simply evolve, replacing one word with another, one meaning with the next. Although words like geek have changed in status, everything else seems pretty much the same. As for you hearing more vulgar language now than when you were young, I don't know what to tell you. Kids are saying the same things they were when I was a kid.

 

[Ichimaru]

The way you're portraying is that simply were using different words, which I believe happens and is completely correct. This "mutation" if were talking in evolutionary terms, seems to be in the exact opposite direction from what was acceptable in the previous generation. It also seems much more sudden then in any other time I can remember. The child thing stems from the fact that I work as day camp counselor. I had two 6 year olds and more than a few 10+ year olds who couldn't control their swearing. Depending on whether you see the terms as vulgar I guess would shape your opinion, the terms I hear more casually thrown around are the more extreme of the expletives though.

 

[shatnershaman]

Talking about Vulgar language on the "internet" makes me roll on the floor laughing.

 

[fluffylandmine]

Well I think we just answered this with the first 2 replies. Both are right and relevant.

 

[Ares Tyr]

Watch the movie "Flags Of Our Fathers" by Clint Eastwood. No, we're not more vulgar. We've always been vulgar.

 

[Noamuth]

Well I think we just answered this with the first 2 replies. Both are right and relevant.

Yup. Could not have said it better.

 

[Maet]

The English language has become a lot of things in the past few years, but more vulgar is not one of them (extreme vulgarity has always existed, but never been this... public). If anything, I think that we're just getting more creative when it comes to insults.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

I would agree that it has most definately gotten more vulgar, but I probably didn't help anything by swearing my ass off (Oh, there we go) at every opportunity. What is really shocking is when five year olds walking home from school swear at you (apparently for having the gall to walk past them).

 

[Anarchemitis]

Profanities have simply changed through the years. The worst word for a long time was 'scum' because it originally referred to the ashes of cremated murderers.

 

[Echolocating]

Yeah, things aren't any more or less vulgar than they already were. It's not like we're getting nicer to each other or anything crazy like that. We all hate each other just as much as we did before. ;-)

 

[RYjet911]

Vulgar language is getting more lax.

i.e. a hundred years ago, calling the breast of a chicken 'breast meat' was considered highly inappropriate, which is why phrases like white meat and dark meat was used a lot. Now, we can happily call it breast meat.

 

[rougeknife]

I come from a country where a tourism campaign in the British Isles to attract people to my land had the Slogan:
Where the bloody hell are you?

It was either that or
Get your fucking arse over here.

Honestly, I had a Yankee cousin over here last year, took himout drinking, and watched his shock as he met a friend of mine? nice little Asian Australia girl? whose entire vocabulary consists of a C-Bomb at least once in every sentence. She also drank him under the table.

Welcome to Australia cocksucker!

 

[howard_hughes]

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners,
contempt for authority; they allow disrespect for elders and
love chatter in place of exercise. Children now are tyrants,
not the servants of their households. They no longer rise
when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross
their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

That quote has been attributed to Socrates, however there are doubts in whichever community it is that monitors these things to its authenticity; so the farthest back that I can confirm it for sure is to 1966. So if I am to believe that this is as new as some suspect then we know that youths have been horrible and disrespectful since as late as the 60's and as early as THE BEGINNING OF TIME. Impressionable youth will always reflect what is in the world around them, they're either picking the worlds up from popular media or more then likely older siblings and parents.

 

[ultra_v_89]

I come from a country where a tourism campaign in the British Isles to attract people to my land had the Slogan:
Where the bloody hell are you?

It was either that or
Get your fucking arse over here.

Honestly, I had a Yankee cousin over here last year, took himout drinking, and watched his shock as he met a friend of mine? nice little Asian Australia girl? whose entire vocabulary consists of a C-Bomb at least once in every sentence. She also drank him under the table.

Welcome to Australia cocksucker!

Yeah!
'Where the Bloody hell are you?', then if you don't like it "F*ck the bloody hell off!".
Swearing is growing in prominance, however, though I respect people who can convey an opinion without swearing, it doesn't quite have the impact neccessary to grasp attention. "oh H-E-double hockeysticks!". Its people who do nothing but curse and can barely form a sentence without chucking one in, ie. bogans and rappers, who ruin it for the rest of us. Swearing for impact occasionally or in pain is fine, just don't use it in place of more fitting adjectives, verbs, nouns, etc. Long live swearing for comedy! Billy Connelly and Eddie Murphey FTW