Rampant profanity

[RestoreTheJoy]

Fine, as long as you realize that people with robust vocabularies swear. They just may not be part of “your world”.

Sure. I see it. Let's just say that it is distinctly unimpressive.

 

[Tinker Grey]

So he chose to virtue signal instead of choosing empathy and connection.

How do you get that? He chose empathy and connection instead of virtue signaling.

 

[ToddNotTodd]

Sure. I see it. Let's just say that it is distinctly unimpressive.

As I find your opinion to be unimpressive as well.

It appears as though this topic is one in which people can only spout subjective likes and dislikes, without any substance behind it...

 

[gaara4158]

And plenty of men in working clothes have supported the most morally upright concepts. But in general, lack of proficiency in vocabulary is correlated with the decline in opportunities that comes with poverty.

All things can be overcome by effort. Look at what Dr. Ben Carson's mom, an illiterate woman raising children on her own in a poor area, was able to do, by shutting off the TV and demanding two book reports a week from her little boys.

That’s a pivot and I don’t disagree, but I should point out that profanity isn’t even necessarily indicative of a lack of proficiency in vocabulary. It’s indicative of a lack or suspension of inhibition, which has its place in conversation.

 

[Sammy-San]

So a person would not be expected to apologize in such a scenario?

why is the f word considered one of the worst ones ever? People eat eggs and drink milk and those have reproductive functions. is it because it refers to certain body parts in and of itself or because it also refers to the butt or transhumanism or non physical things. Transhumanism technically involves reproductive functions and people eat eggs that are reproductive cells and female homosexuality doesn't involve eggs. I don't think hormones and genetics and chromosomes have to do with the f word. They said in a Bible study that Adam and Eve were ashamed because their reproductive organs would be used to create sinners but I think they were ashamed because they knew what those were for. Fight the new drug mentioned that a lot of behaviors people do are related to pornography, like marriages not being as focused on the friendship side of the relationship, and based on the term vanilla, I believe that just the fact that the f word refers to stimulation of reproductive organs makes it so offensive.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The words of profanity are ugly. Who wants ugly things rattling around in their mind?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[The happy Objectivist]

That's just wrong, if you are profanity spewing around young children. No one wants to hear that nonsense, much less repeated by the little parrots.

I agree. It's almost a physical pain that I feel when I hear it from kids. I feel so many emotions all at once. I think the internet has been a huge source of this. You can monitor what your kids watch and then they are with friends and people at school who show them things. Also just the general laziness of the vocabulary of kids these days. I immediately think about what must their home life be like. My dad cursed a lot but not my mom. And in our family, it was just not something that was tolerated from us.

 

[ViaCrucis]

As a side note. Profanity in the English language is, at least in part, the result of little more than classism. A lot of our "bad words" have something in common, they're Anglo-Saxon words, while the "polite" alternative is often French.

Why? Well that has to do with a guy name William, he was from Normandy, France, well he was but then he conquered England. With the Norman invasion of England the English language took a hard turn, the aristocracy were Normans, the peasants were Anglo-Saxon. So the farmers raised cows, and the lords who owned the fields ate beef. The farmers raised chickens, the lords ate poultry. The farmers raised swine, the lords ate pork.

The lower-class Anglo-Saxons continued to use Anglo-Saxon words, the Norman French used Norman French words.

Further divides in class-based language occurred in other points of history of course, we can probably thank the Victorian era and the Industrial revolution in part. High society would never let themselves speak about certain low-brow topics, the sorts of things that you might hear down at a tavern, or at the dock, or among the workers of the factories. So language about sex, bodily functions, and the like were low-brow, the bourgeois would never deign to speak the vulgar tongue, they were far too "posh" for that. And since America apparently was just as obsessed with what English royals were doing in the 19th century as they still do in the 21st century, Victorian era mores often crossed the pond.

The only thing that makes certain words "bad" is a shared cultural taboo, largely inherited from rich snotty sorts from over a hundred years ago.

The word "orange" could become a profanity or curse if we all generally treated it like such. The words we consider bad have no inherent badness, they're just words. We have other words to talk about the same things usually, we just don't generally treat them with the same taboo.

I'll avoid certain words around certain company, around other company it's not something I worry about. Neither is inherently good or bad. I don't avoid certain words around certain people because I secretly know those words are really bad, but because I know the sensibilities of certain people and I have no reason to speak in such a way that might cause them offense. It's about respecting the people I'm around, not because I believe certain words hold some kind of inherent evil power.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[The happy Objectivist]

"Bad" words are sometime perfectly appropriate, and even the right choice. But not as often as many people think. Dont wear em out, people!

Not much dumber than an f bomb carpet bombing.

I agree. They should be used very judiciously to maintain their effect. It's like tension building up on a fault line and then releases all at once.

 

[Sammy-San]

They're just words.

That's like justifying pornography because God created sex and it isn't a sin if it's between a husband and wife. It's meant to be chanelled into a very narrow scope.

 

[Rajni]

Words in and of themselves are not harmful; it's the meaning we project onto them that does us in.

If someone were to insult me in a language I didn't understand, I wouldn't get offended because I wouldn't be able to interpret the words and decide to be offended by them (or not).

Or, if someone insulted me where I couldn't hear the words they used, I wouldn't feel offended because I never heard them in the first place.

If the words themselves had any power to hurt, I would be offended and in pain regardless of whether or not I could hear them or understand them. It's not the words – it’s what I think about those words that causes offense.

Offense is taken, not given.

I will also add that the more truth there is in the words, the more offensive I might find them. If someone calls me “donkey ears”, that wouldn’t offend me, because my ears are nothing like a donkey’s. If my ears did resemble a donkey’s, however, I’d likely feel hurt (though my hearing would likely be better than it is now, lol).

 

[Sammy-San]

Words in and of themselves are not harmful; it's the meaning we project onto them that does us in.

If someone were to insult me in a language I didn't understand, I wouldn't get offended because I wouldn't be able to interpret the words and decide to be offended by them (or not).

Or, if someone insulted me where I couldn't hear the words they used, I wouldn't feel offended because I never heard them in the first place.

If the words themselves had any power to hurt, I would be offended and in pain regardless of whether or not I could hear them or understand them. It's not the words – it’s what I think about those words that causes offense.

Offense is taken, not given.

I will also add that the more truth there is in the words, the more offensive I might find them. If someone calls me “donkey ears”, that wouldn’t offend me, because my ears are nothing like a donkey’s. If my ears did resemble a donkey’s, however, I’d likely feel hurt (though my hearing would likely be better than it is now, lol).

Why is the f word considered so vulgar? Fight the new drug mentioned that pornography influences people to be more wierd than normal but I think cursing probably existed far before pornography. It probably was far less rampant during the days of before the computer and some people in modern times probably have never seen it but people have cursed for thousands of years so profanity probably refers to the most normal of bodily functions.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

As I find your opinion to be unimpressive as well.

It appears as though this topic is one in which people can only spout subjective likes and dislikes, without any substance behind it...

You did.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

How do you get that? He chose empathy and connection instead of virtue signaling.

We are going to have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

[Tinker Grey]

We are going to have to agree to disagree on that one.

I was there; you weren't. You're wrong.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

I was there; you weren't. You're wrong.

You are correct that I wasn't there, anyway.

 

[ToddNotTodd]

You did.

As did you...

 

[renniks]

When my young daughters asked me why it was wring to say bad words I told them it wasn't wrong. There is nothing wrong with a word--words are simply arrangements of the alphabet or the expression of air passed thought the larynx. They asked because they have heard profanity in music and films--I told them that people use profanity in those instances to express tone and to emphasize emotion. There is nothing wrong with those emotions. I also told them that they should consider not using profanity because some people are easily offended and they will judge you. Mature people don't worry about this, I said, It is best to read and learn--to develop a strong vocabulary so that when people argue about words, you will have more than them.

The best definition of profanity I've ever seen is that it's a weak minds way of trying to express itself. That is one of the reasons I try not to swear. I think it shows one's lack of intelligence. People swear when they have nothing of value to say, or when they are angry and out of control. But one of the fruits of the Spirit is self control.

 

[Caliban]

The best definition of profanity I've ever seen is that it's a weak minds way of trying to express itself. That is one of the reasons I try not to swear. I think it shows one's lack of intelligence. People swear when they have nothing of value to say, or when they are angry and out of control. But one of the fruits of the Spirit is self control.

How do you respond to my objections to this claim earlier in this thread? It is obviously false. When you define profanity the way you do--it is bad by default. Why prefer the definition you suggested. Shakespeare and Marlowe cursed and were smarter that all of us.

 

[renniks]

How do you respond to my objections to this claim earlier in this thread? It is obviously false. When you define profanity the way you do--it is bad by default. Why prefer the definition you suggested. Shakespeare and Marlowe cursed and were smarter that all of us.

It is bad by default. It's also objectively bad. But I never saw your argument, so if you want to sum it up for me that'd be great.