Poll: What is so bad about swearing?

[Octorok]

Yeah, I mind swearing in the sense that I can't do it. Mental block.

And I don't really care when other people do it, unless offensively - oh, and the whole 'they're just words!' argument is like saying 9/11 is just numbers. Or 'tree' just being letters, for that matter.

No, not really. That would make more sense if I were saying "Nazi is just a word!", but connotations that apply to 9/11 are not applicable to swearing.

Disclaimer : I love swearing. I'm glad that it exists and that I have a nice selection of words to fall back on when times so require.

However, the idea of a "swear word" makes no sense. Firstly - swear words change all the time. Three hundred years from now, what people find offensive will be far from today's swear words. The changes have little to do with rhyme or reason, just the chaos of language developing.

This implies that, if a word is "rude" now, why should it be any less rude at any other point in history?

Secondly - what offends people about swearing? Really? If I say "Fucking" to someone who finds it offensive, what causes it to be so?

It's certainly not anything like 9/11. "Fucking" has no evil connotations or meaning. I can saying "fornicating" just fine. So it's not the meaning of the word at all that makes it offensive, so what is it? The spelling?

Swear words are a simple blip in language, words that everyone has decided "these are the special bad words. Use carefully." It makes no sense, but gosh darn it, I love it.

 

[Lukeje]

Quite simply, if there wasn't anything wrong with it then we wouldn't do it.

 

[Octorok]

Yeah, I mind swearing in the sense that I can't do it. Mental block.

And I don't really care when other people do it, unless offensively - oh, and the whole 'they're just words!' argument is like saying 9/11 is just numbers. Or 'tree' just being letters, for that matter.

No, not really. That would make more sense if I were saying "Nazi is just a word!", but connotations that apply to 9/11 are not applicable to swearing.

Disclaimer : I love swearing. I'm glad that it exists and that I have a nice selection of words to fall back on when times so require.

However, the idea of a "swear word" makes no sense. Firstly - swear words change all the time. Three hundred years from now, what people find offensive will be far from today's swear words. The changes have little to do with rhyme or reason, just the chaos of language developing.

This implies that, if a word is "rude" now, why should it be any less rude at any other point in history?

Secondly - what offends people about swearing? Really? If I say "Fucking" to someone who finds it offensive, what causes it to be so?

It's certainly not anything like 9/11. "Fucking" has no evil connotations or meaning. I can saying "fornicating" just fine. So it's not the meaning of the word at all that makes it offensive, so what is it? The spelling?

Swear words are a simple blip in language, words that everyone has decided "these are the special bad words. Use carefully." It makes no sense, but gosh darn it, I love it.

No, I wasn't saying that they were as bad as 9/11, I'm saying that swear words are words that we've given specific meanings to be 'the bad words'. Like we've given kitten the specific meaning of 'baby cat', cup the specific meaning of 'thing you drink out of', and weight the specific meaning of 'how much something weighs'.

It's just that so often the 'they're just words' argument comes up, when its just so stupid.

Ah, OK. Nonetheless, I still defend the argument, albeit in a slightly modified form.

I don't mean "they are just words" to mean that no word should ever be offensive in itself because it's just a phrase.

Just that swear words are, mostly, slang. A lot of the "worst" swear words are slang for perfectly reasonable technical words. Which would mean that the fact they are offensive is basically nonsensical.

As you said, it's just a selection of words that we've designated "the bad words". It's just an interesting quirk of human psychology that people will be genuinely upset by words that are, ultimately, harmless simply because they've been raised to think "These words are bad." without any other reason.

It'd be like you raised an entire generation of people, telling them that apples were really horrible and nobody should eat them, with the same cultural strength of the swear word effect, and later in life people would feel repulsion upon eating an apple simply because they were told that apples should not be eaten.

Also interesting - we have a sliding scale of swear words. Some swear words are somehow "worse" than others. I guess at one point in human history, some exceptionally clever chap thought, "Hang on. I need a word that I can shout when I spill tea all over myself, and that causes other people distress. Maybe if I had multiple words, and some would be more effective than others! YES!"

 

[FamoFunk]

I have a mouth like a sailor a lot of the times, but I can switch it off if I need to.

I don't mind swearing and I don't bat an eye lid if I hear it, tbh.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Eh, aslong as your not acting like a dicknugget and swearing three times a sentance I'm fine with it. Hell I enjoy it, mainly bloody, it just rolls of the tounge well.

This. I hate it when every other word in a sentence is a swear word. Really makes the person sound retarded. Although anyone who stubs there toe on a door is allowed to swear.

 

[Chronologger]

In my eyes, context is what defines whether or not the language you're using is "bad", I swear quite rigorously, and it's hardly ever with hurtful intent. With that justification, I don't even see it as "bad" language.

I thought this was pretty standard these days.

 

[MrLumber]

As it has been mentioned before, swearing on its own isn't something I find particularly offensive, but rather over use shows a distinct lack of creativity in the verbal department.

I don't really get annoyed by it, but every time I hear someone say it within, say, a minute I gradually lose more and more respect for that person. Really I do that with any word though, just the most common are the infamous phrase 'like' and cussing.

 

[AdamRBi]

Only if it's accidental. Like if you stub your toe or you're expressing unthinkable rage.

Swearing for good things should be avoided, but it's not too bad.

Swearing for pure comedic value where it's the swearing that's supposed to be funny? Nooo no no no.

 

[GuyUWishUWere]

Only when it is abused. For example in Killzone 2 all the character were constantly swearing, so when something stressful actually happened they had no where to go.

As for real life I don't believe in cencsoring reality to "protect" someone. No one ever dealt with the world better by ignoring its flaws. That's just naive.