Is the acceptance of profanity into our language good?

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Is the censoring of profane language a good thing?

Here is a humourous little ditty about the acceptance of certain words in different countries

[Mod edit: video link redacted.
There is no reason to post examples of what people are already aware of and to do so looks like an excuse to swear on the forum - which is not permitted on WP]

CAUTION: the song contains the kind of words we are discussing.

Languages do change over time. In French, the verb "foutre" has become an ordinary, everyday word.

From its debut, Deadwood has drawn attention for its extensive profanity. It is a deliberate anachronism on the part of the creator with a twofold intent. Milch has explained in several interviews that the characters were originally intended to use period slang and swear words. Such words, however, were based heavily on the era's deep religious roots and tended to be more blasphemous than scatological. Instead of being shockingly crude (in keeping with the tone of a frontier mining camp), the results sounded downright comical. As one commentator put it "… if you put words like 'goldarn' into the mouths of the characters on 'Deadwood', they'd all wind up sounding like Yosemite Sam."[8]

Instead, it was decided that the show would use current profanity in order for the words to have the same impact on modern audiences as the blasphemous ones did back in the 1870s. In fact, in early episodes, the character of Mr. Wu seems to know only three words of English — the mangled name of one character ("Swedgin"), "San Francisco", and his favorite derogatory term for those whom he dislikes, "cocksucka". Wu is fond of the Cantonese derogatory term "gweilo" which he applies to the camp's white males.

The other intent in regards to the frequency of the swearing was to signal to the audience the lawlessness of the camp in much the same way that the original inhabitants used it to show that they were living outside the bounds of "civil society".

...

The word "f**k" was said 43 times in the first hour of the show.[9] It has been reported that the series had a total count of 2,980 "f***s" and an average of 1.56 utterances of "f**k" per minute of footage.[10]

According to Moog, censorship is very good indeed...

Conduct
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The following activities are unacceptable on WrongPlanet:

1. Posting offensive language, comments, video, or images.
Unacceptable content includes swearing; racist, sexist, homophobic language; behavior intended to provoke or belittle other members; violent or sexually demeaning content; sexual fetish; and discussion of excretory function. Posting graphic images or videos of people or animals being harmed is prohibited.

More to the point, it's against WP's rules to swear.

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

More to the point, it's against WP's rules to swear.

Well here's a point, since WP has relaxed the rules on fetish talk so long as it's in the adult section, why don't you do the same for swearing? It makes no sense to allow sexual discussions but disallow use of certain words

Well here's a point, since WP has relaxed the rules on fetish talk so long as it's in the adult section, why don't you do the same for swearing? It makes no sense to allow sexual discussions but disallow use of certain words

Talking about fetishes is banned in the rules but it's generally allowed in the adult section as long as no one goes into too much detail, so why can't we swear in the adult section just as long as we're not attacking people? That's my question I put to you.

Talking about fetishes is banned in the rules but it's generally allowed in the adult section as long as no one goes into too much detail, so why can't we swear in the adult section just as long as we're not attacking people? That's my question I put to you.

The auto-censor doesn't discriminate according to forum so therefore it's entirely consistent for any member, anywhere on WP.
I remember a time not so long ago when rules were requested which weren't open to personal interpretation: the auto-censor provides just that.

Actually, it's more or less useful to swear so often. Swearing at the opportune time can reduce the sensation of pain (say, when you miss the nail you're trying to hammer and hit your finger) but according to studies, people that swear too often do not get that benefit, likely from being used to it. =/

Also, swear words are supposed to be "taboo", because they have such power that they can provoke emotions. Constant use of those makes the impact progressively smaller (desensibilization) and kind of makes the point of them being "taboo" in the first place kind of irrelevant. =/